Aden (South24)

An official in the Southern Transitional Council (STC) held a number of official meetings with Turkish officials in the first step of its kind to forging relations between the STC, which seeks the independence of South Yemen, and the powerful republic in the Middle East.

On November 23 and 24, Deputy Chairman of the Southern Dialogue Team, Abdulsalam Qassem Massad, met with a number of Turkish officials in the central bodies and institutions affiliated with the Presidency of the Turkish Republic.

The meetings included Professor Birol Akgün, the President of the Turkish Maarif Foundation, and Dr. Aziz Kokson, Coordinator of Cultural and External Relations of the Turkish Government, and Dr. Davut Altinbas, Vice President of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MUSIAD).

Earlier, on November 16, Massad met with Omer Faruk Korkmaz, Former Chief Advisor to the then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The official STC website said that the meetings discussed "the economic, social and security conditions taking place in the Southern governorates." The Southern official invited Turkish investors to work in his country.

This is the first visit of its kind by an STC official. Turkey also has strong ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islah Party in Yemen, key opponent of the STC.

In recent years, Turkey has begun to consolidate its relationship with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the latter of which is a strategic ally of the STC.

On November 18, STC President Aidrous Al-Zubaidi, met in Riyadh with Mustafa Pulat, the Turkish Ambassador to Yemen. The meeting discussed "bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and ways to enhance them at various levels".