HAVANA, Cuba, May 8 (ACN) Esteban Lazo Hernández, member of the Political Bureau and President of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), received thid Wednesday, at the National Capitol, Numan Kurtulmuş, his counterpart from the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye.
Kurtulmuş, who arrived in Cuba this Wednesday after an invitation from Lazo Hernandez, was also welcomed by Ana Maria Mari Machado and Homero Acosta Alvarez, vice president and secretary of the ANPP, respectively.
The President of the Cuban Parliament expressed his satisfaction with the presence of the distinguished visitor, being the first leader of the Turkish Grand National Assembly to visit the island.
His visit represents a commitment for the relations between the two peoples and a stimulus to take advantage of the common potentialities in terms of development, he said.
Despite the geographical distances, our peoples are united by historical, cultural, solidarity and cooperation ties, said Lazo Hernandez.
Lazo said that in Havana’s Historic Center is the footprint of Türkiye, through murals, panels and the bust of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first leader of that Republic.
He specified that on November 25, 2024, both countries will celebrate 72 years since the establishment of their diplomatic relations, which are in a good condition.
Cuban-Turkish ties are marked by important historical moments, such as the visit of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz to Istanbul in 1996; the arrival in 2015 and for the first time to the Caribbean nation of a president of Türkiye, in the figure of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and, recently, the stay of Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of Republic, in November 2022, in that Eurasian territory.
He stressed that, for two years, both parliaments have had a memorandum of collaboration, which reflects the willingness of the parties to move forward jointly in this field.
He thanked Türkiye’s support to the annual resolution presented before the United Nations to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the U.S. government, and to the demand for Cuba to stop being part of the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Lazo Hernández explained that the National Capitol is the institutional seat of the Cuban Parliament since 20
