Minister of National Defence Fikri Işık visited London Yunus Emre Enstitüsü as part of contacts in British capital of London. Ambassador Abdurrahman Bilgiç accompanied Minister Işık who received information on Enstitü's operations. During his Yunus Emre Enstitüsü visit, Minister Fikri Işık came together with representative of Turkish NGOs in the meeting held as part of the visit.

After the meeting, Minister Işık met with Turkish students receiving graduate and doctoral education at universities in England.

Işık addressed the students saying, "This is a very important turning point both for our country and our region. This is the most turbulent period since Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Our priority is to go through this turbulence with minimum damage to our country, and to ensure a sustainable stability in our region.”

Expressing that as the government, they have given intense efforts so that the developments in the region will not create major issues for Turkey, Işık spoke as follows: “In the meantime, we also face troubles within the country. But in doing all this, we act with the awareness that we have a responsibility our civilization values impose on us.”

Stressing that there is turbulence in the region, Işık continued his words as follows:

"Especially the recent events in Aleppo, bleed all our hearts in the name of humanity. Turkey is doing its best to end this crime against humanity as soon as possible. We truly make efforts so that the oppression in Aleppo will come to end. A ceasefire is currently in effect. We hope this ceasefire to turn into a lasting peace. We play our part as Turkey. However it seems unlikely to achieve a lasting peace before this swamp is dried. At this point, we have to intensively struggle with ISIS, and we also must fight against other terrorist organizations which make attempts to gain territory by taking advantage of this swamp in the region. "

Minister Işık marking that Turkey fights against multiple terrorist organizations at the same time with determination, spoke as follows:

"We have been struggling with PKK terrorist organization for more than 35 years in Turkey, and recently we dealt a significant blow to the terrorist organization. So they turned to suicide bombings, the last resort of terrorist organizations. But with God's will, patience and commitment of our nation will overcome these attacks. We have martyrs, may God have mercy on them; there are those wounded, but our nation is utterly determined in the face of this joint assaults to Turkey by these terrorist organizations. We, as the government, continue to work with dedication towards completely disbanding this terrorist organization. With God's will, Turkey will overcome this hardship. We will make sure that the terrorist organization will no longer be able to attack Turkey."

“The nation is emotionally strong"

Işık, marking that Turkey dealt a heavy blow to the terrorist organization in the fight given since July 24^th, spoke as follows: "A large part of terrorist group has been neutralized and this struggle will continue. The most important point, we pay attention to building a thick wall between our Kurdish citizens and the terrorist organization. Kurds are our brothers and sisters. We have lived together in Turkey, in our homeland for a thousand years. We share the same joy, the same grief, the same fervour and the same sadness. We especially make efforts to strengthen this feeling of unity, sense of belonging to the nation, and to create an awareness that we are children of the same people. The founding element of Turkish Republic is not solely the Turkish people but also the Kurdish people and peoples of other ethnic origins. We already do not define nation as an ethnic concept. It is easy to say this but we have achieved great things in putting this into practice and will continue to do so. If our grandfathers sleep side by side in Çanakkale, in Sarıkamış as martyrs, tomorrow we will proceed on our way, hand in hand. For this, we make a serious distinction between the terrorist organization and people of the region, and we receive the due response."