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House Speaker: Hungarian-Turkish relations have a long history

The Hungarian-Turkish Cultural Year organized to mark the 100th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Hungary and Turkey offers an opportunity to strengthen cultural cooperation between the two countries.

House Speaker László Kövér arrived in Turkey for an official visit on Tuesday.

He opened an exhibition dubbed Parliament on the Danube Bank at Istanbul's Tarik Zafer Tunaya Cultural Centre.

The exhibition has been organized under the arrangements of the Hungarian-Turkish Cultural Year by the Parliament's public collections directorate, the Hungarian embassy and the Liszt Institute - Hungarian Cultural Centre Istanbul.

Kövér told the opening event that Hungarian-Turkish relations had a long history but "despite the ties of kinship, unfortunately, the period when our countries when our countries were fighting against each other had lasted too long."

He added, however, that the Hungarian people would never forget that Ilona Zrinyi, Imre Thokoly, Ferenc Rakoczi II, Lajos Kossuth and "many of our heroes found refuge on Turkish land.

The purpose of the exhibition is to present to visitors the Parliament building and its cultural features and to attract tourists to visit the building in Budapest.

The Hungarian-Turkish Cultural Year organized to mark the 100th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Hungary and Turkey offers an opportunity to strengthen cultural cooperation between the two countries.

Kövér will continue his official visit in Ankara where he will hold talks with his host Numan Kurtulmus, speaker of the Grand National Assembly, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.