December 25, 2012, 8:32 pm | Island
Turkey, a member State of NATO will be opening a fully fledged embassy in Colombo in February next year. They have already designated an Ambassador to Sri Lanka. On Monday this week, the Turkish Ambassador Designate to Sri Lanka Ambassador Iskender Okyay paid an official visit to the Sri Lanka Embassy in Ankara and had formal discussions with Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Turkey Bharathi Wijeratne. The first Sri Lanka Embassy with resident Ambassador in Ankara was established in June 2012. The opening of fully fledged Embassies in both countries is taking place after one hundred and five years of Consular Relations between the two countries. This is symptomatic of the growing ties between the two nations.
The Wijeratne family has had a long standing
relationship with Turkey, Hemachandra Wijeratne and his daughters Bharathi and
now Indhi have represented Turkey in Sri Lanka as Consul Generals for the past
35 years. In a development that was probably unique in the annals of diplomatic
relations, Turkey’s serving Consul General in Sri Lanka Bharathi Wijeratne
resigned in favour of her sister, to take up the position of Sri Lanka’s first
Ambassador to Turkey earlier this year.
