H.E. Iyad Ameen Madani, Secretary General of the OIC, paid an official visit to the Republic of Turkey on 14-15 January 2014. During his two-day official visit to Ankara, H.E. the Secretary General was received by H.E. Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey, and H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister. He also had meetings with H.E. Ali Babacan, Deputy Prime Minister, H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and H.E. Cevdet Yılmaz, Minister of Development. The Secretary General was briefed by the COMCEC Coordination Office on its activities and COMCEC’s new strategy. On 15th January, the Secretary General addressed the 6th Turkish Ambassadorial Conference, which was attended by Turkish ambassadors serving overseas.

During his official visit to Ankara, the Secretary General of the OIC, H.E. Iyad Ameen Madani, also paid a special visit to SESRIC on 15th January. He was welcomed by the Director General of the Centre, Prof. Savaş Alpay, and the SESRIC Staff. The Director General, Prof. Alpay, expressed his honour that SESRIC was the first OIC institution to be officially visited by the Secretary General. He briefed the Secretary General on the latest developments regarding various activities of the Centre. A presentation was made for the Secretary General on the current challenges of the Palestinian people in Al-Quds city. The presentation was based on the document titled "Recommendations and Proposals for Supporting the Palestinian People in Al-Quds Al-Sharif City", which has been recently prepared by SESRIC as an input to the upcoming meeting of the OIC Al-Quds Committee. The presentation highlighted the socio-economic situation in Jerusalem in terms of population and land use, economy, labour force and employment, housing and living condition, tourism, education, health and civil society. It also provided a set of recommendations and proposals on various economic, social and general issues related to the Palestinian people living in Jerusalem. A fruitful discussion has been conducted during the presentation where H.E. the Secretary General provided valuable views and proposed new ideas to be included in the future research of the Centre on this issue.

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