Turkey planting 10M young trees to honor Belarusians

By Merve Yildizalp

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has launched a project to plant 10 million young trees in honor of Belarusians, the country's Forestry and Water Minister Veysel Eroglu said on Thursday.

The minister’s remark came during his meeting with Belarusian Ambassador to Ankara Andrei Savinykh at his office.

Eroglu -- who is also Turkey-Belarus Joint Economic Commission (JEC) co-chairman -- said the project of planting young trees have already been launched in Turkey.

"Belarus has a population of 10 million. In Turkey, we are planting a young tree for each Belarusian,” he said, and hoped the project would be completed before the JEC co-chairman and Belarusian deputy prime minister’s next visit to Turkey.

- Economic relations

Eroglu said Belarus and Turkey enjoyed “very good” bilateral ties and added that an agreement between Turkish Airlines (THY) and Belarusian Airlines would be signed on Thursday in Minsk.

The Turkish minister said the mutual flights will be increased from May 1. “From Belarus to Turkey, from Turkey to Belarus travel opportunities will get easier,” he added.

For his part, the Belarusian ambassador praised the high demand of flights between the two countries.

The ambassador said that an increase of 20 percent every year in the number of passengers traveling to the two countries will be reflected in the number of flights in future.

"We have seen an increase of 20 percent every year in the number of our passengers,” the ambassador said, adding that if the number increases more, it will be reflected in the number of flights.