Strengthening Hungary-Türkiye ties: New agreement targets joint aid, cultural cooperation

Cooperation in international development is enhancing Hungary-Türkiye ties, with an MoU signed between the Hungary Helps Agency and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, Tristan Azbej, the state secretary for aiding persecuted Christians, said on Thursday, noting agreements made during his visit to Türkiye.

“I’m certain we can translate this agreement into joint actions right away,” he wrote on his Facebook. “People suffering in crisis zones must be helped … and providing appropriate aid can prevent migration from the Sahel region and elsewhere.”

He noted the areas of food safety, educational development, advancing women’s rights and protecting the cultural heritage of Christians, Muslims and other religions as potential points of joint action.

Meanwhile, he said Türkiye was grateful for help Hungary provided after the earthquake in the south of the country, adding that both countries had shown solidarity last year with suffering communities around the world. “The cultural heart of earthquake-stricken Osmaniye province is beating again,” he added.

Hungary handed over a cultural centre and restored the Béla Bartók memorial exhibition within, he said, noting that Bartok had “preserved the treasures of Turkish folk music in this province in 1936”.

Tuzson: Hungary supports Türkiye EU integration

Hungary supports Türkiye’s European Union integration, Bence Tuzson, the justice minister, said after signing a cooperation agreement with Turkish counterpart Yilmaz Tunc in Budapest on Thursday.

The two ministers agreed that leaving Türkiye out of the EU would be the bloc’s loss rather Türkiye’s.

At a joint press conference, Tuzson expressed sympathy over a recent terrorist attack in Ankara claiming five lives, and said that Hungary condemns all kinds of terrorism.

The cooperation accord focusing on the exchange of information in the areas of law and IT, strengthens the two countries’ strategic partnership, Tuzson said, highlighting Türkiye’s advanced IT systems in legislation and its “huge progress in legislation in the past 20 years”.

Tuzson said the EU should in the future “pursue an enlargement policy based on merit rather than on ideologies”, and he insisted that the bloc should “recognise the efforts of countries that have made progress in the area of enlargement” such as Türkiye.

The minister called for an EU that was “as open as possible”, adding that Hungary sought to be a hub for European businesses and ventures outside the community. “This applies to the area of law,” he added.

Enlargement is in the primary interest of the EU rather than of countries outside the EU because “enlargement could boost Europe’s competitiveness,” he said, adding that an invitation has been extended to Turkey to attend the EU’s competitiveness conference in November.

Referring to the recent terrorist attack in Ankara, the Turkish minister blamed the Kurdish PKK party, and he pledged to continue Türkiye’s fight against terrorism and to protect the Turkish people.

Tunc said bilateral relations were problem-free, adding that the accord signed on Thursday was an addition to an earlier agreement on judicial cooperation.

He said his country had met all EU requirements concerning its accession but the EU was discriminating against Türkiye. He insisted that in many areas the EU’s treatment of Türkiye was illegitimate, but he also expressed Türkiye’s determination to join the bloc.

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