Last Update: Tue Feb 01, 2011 01:01 pm (KSA) 10:01 am (GMT)

Yemenis can now enter Turkey without a visa

Turkey's President Abdullah Gul meets with his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a

Turkey's President Abdullah Gul meets with his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a

Turkey signed an agreement lifting visa requirements with Yemen, in an aim to boost trade and prestige of Anakra in the Middle East and beyond, The National reported on Wednesday.

"Just like Turks and Yemenites could visit and embrace each other without a visa in old times, both peoples will be able to visit each other with today's lifting of visa requirements," Turkey's President Abdullah Gul said in a meeting with his Yemeni counterpart, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sana'a on Tuesday.

Gul’s two-day trip was the first visit of a Turkish head in Yemen. "For us, this is a historic visit," Gul said.

Yemen is now the latest addition to Turkey’s growing list of more than 60 countries exempted from visa requirements to enter the Anatolian country.

The list includes suspicious countries by the west such as Sudan and Iran; however the U.S. has promised to remove Sudan from its terrorist list if Khartoum allows a peaceful south Sudan referendum.

Turkey supports Yemen

When asked about the widespread poverty in Yemen, Gul said that Turkey will host a summit of the world’s least developed nations together with the United Nations in Istanbul this summer.

"It is very important for the stability of the Arabian Peninsula, for the stability of Africa and for the safety of the waterways that this country stays secure," Gul said about Yemen.

Turkish newspaper Radiakl quoted Gul’s advisers saying that the trip was meant as a message to support an embattled country that was sometimes seen as "the third front" in the fight against terrorism, after Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The fight against terrorism is a global concern," Gul said, adding "international co-operation is very important in this issue. Turkey will be together with Yemen in this."

In late 2010, parcels containing bombs bound for the United States were found to have originated in Yemen. Also, Anwar al-Awlaki, a “U.S. citizen of Yemen descent has been regarded as a dangerous ideologue for Islamists terrorism is thought to be hiding in Yemen,” the newspaper said.

Gul, who said that an estimated 50,000 Ottoman soldiers had died in Yemen, took part in the opening of a cemetery for Turkish troops in Sana'a.

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