Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said his country took a crucial step last week by starting work on development of a road extending from Basra in South Iraq to his country.

Erdogan declared that his government would continue to publicize good news for the Turkish people in the coming days.

In a speech during the General Assembly of the Endowment (Ilim Yaymain), the knowledge dissemination waqf, Erdogan thanked those in charge of the endowment commission for their charitable work that extends for many years.

The Turkish President stressed the need to continue solidarity, especially during the fasting month of Ramadan, with victims of the devastating earthquake that struck the south of his country at dawn on February 6.

In another context, Erdogan revealed intention to turn the current centenary into “Turkey’s century,” indicating that they “are doing their utmost to achieve this.” He explained that his government had agreed with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia’ al-Sudani to “work together to complete the development of the road project aimed at building a land transport corridor and a railway extending from Basra to the Turkish border.” Erdogan described the project as a step to link Turkey to the Arab Gulf region again. He continued, “We will continue in the coming days to spread new good news to our people.” Last week, Erdogan announced that he had agreed with the Iraqi prime minister, who was a guest in Ankara, to assign the relevant ministers to work on building the road that would extend from Basra to Turkey.

In a press conference following his recent meeting with Al-Sudani, Erdogan said, “This project will enhance regional cooperation, develop our trade and strengthen our human relations.

“We are aware that other brotherly countries are also interested in this project. With their participation, we can transform the development road project into the silk road for our region.”

Source: Kuwait News Agency