Your Excellency Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, You Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, It gives me great pleasure to address the First International Turkish- African Congress.
I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to the Turkish Asian Centre for Strategic Studies for taking the initiative to organize this timely and topical Congress.
The attendance of His Excellency Alpha Oumar Konare will surely be an important contribution to the Congress.
His Excellency's visit to Turkey has been the first visit by the Head of the Organization of African Unity since the Organization was founded in 1963.
Turkey's bonds with the African continent dates back to the times of the Ottoman Empire.
Turks have had traditionally good relations with this continent.
The relations and interactions of the Ottoman Empire with this continent covered a vast geography, stretching from West to East Africa, and from the Kanem Bornu Sultanate of Central Africa to Zanzibar of today's Tanzania.
Turkish and African peoples have established strong humanitarian, moral, cultural and political ties with each other.
The Turkish War of Independence that followed the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire had been a source of inspiration for African peoples' strug- gle for freedom and national independence.
