Türkiye and Bulgaria should bolster their bilateral ties in order to overcome regional challenges, the speaker of the Turkish Parliament declared on Monday.
"At a time when we are facing regional and global difficulties, it has become increasingly necessary to strengthen cooperation and solidarity between the two neighboring countries," Mustafa Şentop said at a news conference with his Bulgarian counterpart Vezhdi Rashidov in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Şentop said the close relations between the two countries would contribute to the development of peace, stability and prosperity in the region, especially in the Balkans.
Türkiye and Bulgaria have the potential to boost ties in the fields of economy, trade, tourism and culture, Şentop said, adding that the two countries are planning to organize a meeting on migration, in which the parliamentarians, especially in European countries, will participate in.
"We have always stated that it is not right for the migration problem to fall on only certain countries. We always said that it is a global problem and global solutions should be produced," he said.
Şentop’s remarks echoed Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu’s a day prior, who assured at a conference with his Bulgarian counterpart Ivan Demerdzhiev that their countries would continue to intensify their efforts to curb irregular migration, as well as migrant smuggling.
Rashidov, for his part, said migration has become a problem not for Bulgaria and Türkiye, but also for the whole of Europe.
"In order to solve the migration issue as a whole, we need to gather around a round table and look for a common solution to eliminate this problem," he added.
Stressing that the Türkiye-Bulgaria border is the "safest" one, Rashidov thanked Türkiye for allowing Bulgarian citizens to sleep comfortably.
Due to being positioned on a critical transit route from Asia to Europe, the two countries are subjected to some of the world’s busiest migration traffic, with irregular arrivals sharply increasing in 2022, nearing 85,000. Bulgaria, the easternmost member state of the European Union, is seen as an entry point for many refugees and migrants hoping to reach western Europe.
At face-to-face meetings held early in December, Ankara and Sofia reiterated their desire for closer collaboration on regional matters and agreed on several pacts, including technological transformations, the setting up of optic towers, and the completion of a joint training deal for their security forces aimed at better management of irregular migration, smuggling activity and terrorist crossings on their shared border.
Türkiye and Bulgaria share friendly and neighborly relations as NATO allies. The Turkish diaspora in Bulgaria also plays an important role in promoting bilateral political and economic relations as the country is home to some 588,318 Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity. Similarly, Bulgarians, especially in recent months, have been flocking to Türkiye's Edirne province in droves to stock up on food and clothes.
