By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

The most often used term to express the relations between Korea and Turkey is ``blood brother'' largely because Turkey sent its 15,000 troops to Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. But the top Turkish envoy in Seoul said that the relations also have developed based on special mentality held by Turks in their attitude toward Koreans.

``Korea is a very special country in Turkey. If a Korean tourist declares he is from Korea in Turkey, he will immediately become a guest from a tourist,'' Turkish Ambassador Deniz Ozmen, 52, told The Korea Times.

It is very hard to fully explain why but Turks have a strongly positive mentality toward Koreans, he said. Of course, it began with the Turkish troops who fought for South Korea in the war.

``Almost every Turkish families have connections with the Korean War, and Turkish troops who participated in the war came back home as if they were Korean,'' Ozmen said. ``For example, when they set up a grocery shop, they even put a name of grocery as `Korean' grocery shop.''


Turkish Ambassador, Ozmen

The veterans are also very proud that Korea, for which they fought, has seen such miraculous economic development in the last half-century. In addition Korea's active aid to Turkey during the 1999 earthquake in Istanbul is also deeply engrained in Turks' minds.

``We saw again our close relations when we had the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, and in 2006 World Cup in Germany _ a group of Turkish people went to Germany to support the Korean football team,'' Ozmen said.

The ambassador actually didn't realize Koreans' special feeling toward Turks until he came to Seoul as ambassador early last year. Whenever Ozmen said he was from Turkey, he received such a warm welcome.

``It is also probably because we have the common language root of Ural Altai,'' he said. The structure sentences are similar and it is easier to learn other languages, Ozmen said, showing that he reads Korean very well.

Koreans' interest in Turkey is also found in the steady increase in Korean tourists to Turkey over the past 10 years. ``In 2005, 92,000 Koreans visited Turkey for tourist purposes, and the number increased to 108,000 last year,'' Ozmen said.

The ambassador stressed that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and that a variety of events go on throughout the year. He invited Koreans to participate in those events because they will give the rare opportunity to learn more about Turkey in Korea.

Those events due in the second half of the year are concerts by Antalya State Symphony Orchestra in 10 cities in August, a Turkish Film Festival in September, concerts by the Historical Army Banc in October and other dance and musical performances.

Asked if there is anything to be improved in the bilateral relations, Ozmen answered the unbalanced bilateral trade. Last year, bilateral trade stood at $3.6 billion in which Turkish exports to Korea were $160 million and Korean exports to Turkey were $3.44 billion.

One of the ways to fix the problem, he suggested, is that more Korean companies invest in his country, saying, ``Turkey has a big internal market with a population of 70 million who also provide quality and cheap labor service. Furthermore, we have customs union with the European Union (EU) since 1996.''

He picked Hyundai Motor as a good example, which takes advantage of the customs union: In 2005, 35 percent of Hyundai cars produced in Turkey were exported outside Turkey, mainly to the EU. The figure increased to 57 percent last year, and is likely to reach 75 percent this year.

Regarding Turkey's effort to join the EU, the ambassador said that his country is doing its best to become a full member of the EU. Recently, the Turkish government announced a comprehensive road map of legislative measures to be adopted for ``alignment with the EU acquis'' until 2013, according to the ambassador.

In response to some reports that Turkey's Islam is a stumbling block to the entry into the EU, Ozmen said they are wrong.

``This is not religious difference but cultural difference,'' he said. ``The EU, which already has diverse cultures, will have benefit when Turkey joins it. So Turkey's entry will be another step for the EU to play a global role.''

I never had a good impression about Turks. I would say we have ties by the fact we belong to the Altaic group where Mongol and Japanese also belong to, but political, economic and religious, no. I didn't know Koreans welcome Turks. And kinda didn't like when Koreans were carrying Turkish flags on the game Korea vs Turkey in 2002 worldcup.

koreans are fortunate to have this kind of reputation in turkey.
it's always good to have such a close ally in such a strategic area and a future, most populated EU nation.

i hope this close relationship will flourish for many, many years.

sounds exaggerated but if it's true then it's awesome. i dont know anything about turks though

all american brought back to them from korean war was racist slur, rape, murder, and endless brag about how they alone saved korea

I've lived in Turkey for roughly a year in 1997 and the Turkish people were terrific as a whole. Very warming and easy going people and I dearly miss those days.

WOW! I had no idea that their language is also from Ural Altai! It's so great to hear that Korea has such a close relationship with another country!

Turkey is our relatives. I love turks too.

I love Turkey.
At my high school we'd ave Armenians that hated them with a passion though
They did do some horrific things to them but at the same time I'm very grateful towards them.

i think some armenians don't like koreans bc of relationship with turkey.

but i still think turkey is great people and country.

from what i understand, eastern turkey look more like central asians while western turkey looks more european. but they are all turks!

It's always good to have another ally but let's not take for more than what it's worth.

Turkey is trouble. They're seeking Allies in case of a war:

A TURKEY-IRAQ WAR?

ANKARA SEETHING WITH RAGE AT KURDISH TERRORIST GROUP

June 4, 2007 -- TURKEY could send troops into Iraq any day now. It's massing ground forces on its southeastern border for a possible strike against the terrorist/separatist group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Turkish special ops are likely already on the ground in Iraq.

This is the last thing we - or the Iraqis - need. Preventing it must be a top priority of America, Iraq and Europe. The Kurdish area is the most stable and pro-American part of Iraq; neither Washington nor Baghdad can afford to have it become a new item on the "problem" list. The Turks wouldn't go in unopposed, either. Besides the PKK, Iraqi Kurds have promised to resist any Turkish incursion into Iraq.

The Kurdish Peshmerga militia troops - just recently integrated into the Iraqi national army - are no slouches, meaning plenty of bloodshed in a donnybrook with the Turks. Baghdad has also warned against any Turkish action. It needs Kurdish/Iraqi troops focused on fighting its bad guys: al Qaeda, foreign jihadists and other insurgents.

..........

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted: "Our patience has run out . . . necessary steps will be taken when needed." The Turkish chief of the General Staff said the army is ready - all he needs is the "go-ahead." The Turkish public seems up for a strike, too.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06042007/posto...okes.htm?page=0

turks love koreans ...thats just mustard
but what about dark tukish people in korea, will they get the same love? afterall its the turks who helped korea.

what is the whole beef between kurds and turks anyways?

such rivalries have so many hundreds of years of history and bitterness it is probably difficult for any foreigner to understand. like northern irish and the rest of ireland. people who intervene in other's rivalries without an interest for peace outside of the United Nations, usually have some sort of ambition for military based power in that region.

i always liked cheering for turkey in the world cup tho anytime!

i wonder what pacific island is most isolated from world war. hmm... probably not a good idea to tell random people.

turkey is an instable country, with problems with islamists.

turkey also doesnt admit to the genocide in armenia, and never apologised for it. it even puts ppl in prison who critise the government for it. i got no love for a country like that.

yes yes
turkey is our brothers and best friend
and china is our whole korean the worst enemy

It's never good to have a dependent mentality, and Koreans need to know how to choose its own allies.

Turkey is a country that is making a lot of effort to look good to the world but can't mainly because of its own religion.

we shouldn't get into their business that's for sure. Help out what we can is the best bet.

Turkey is probably the biggest secular society in the islamic world.
Turkey and other islamic states like the UAE are a role model to other more traditional islamic nations.

One of the reasons Turkey fought in the Korean war was basicly they hate communists and were waiting for some action since 1923.



Not entirely true. CA looking people in Turkey mostly belong 2 a tribe who came from CA and mostly preserved there name. This is not only in the east. Lately most ethnic Turks left the east due 2 Kurdish stettlers who continue to move 2 various regions in Turkey. There are many ethnic Turkic groups who settled in Turkey after the end of the ottoman Empire and WW1 & WW2. Like The tatars, Bulgars, Bosnian Turks, various Turkic groups from the caucasus(wich I belong 2). The rest are pretty much non CA peoples.

as for the armenian issue as it's called in Turkey. Turks don't deny that they have killed armenians. Teh simple fact is that it can't be compired with what the nazi did. At the end of the ottoman empire the armenian were "brainwashed" by Russian and american missionaries. The Ottomans are a thing of the past help us now and you will have your land back was the message. They started to rebel. You can't have a rebelion in the heart of the empire so they were forced to move out. They were relocated as were the mocal Turks who lived in that region. Also due to the war with the russians who were advancing into North eastern Turkey. YEs armenians were forced out of there homes and lot of them were killed but that don't make it a genocide.


i'm not exagerating but Turkey could take Iraq and every other middle eastern country with ease exept Iran they have A-boms mate.

Turkey can't do anything cuz the Kurds are supported by the States. Saddam offerd like 30 times 2 whipe out the Kurds. Ill chace them 2 you you chase them back ill shoot was the offer.



We were basicly the invaders 1000 years ago. Some peopel still hold a grudge about that. The Kurds want independance. They want lan from Turkey wich they have never occupied in History. They want mabey 3x as much land as they have ever had as a nation.



CJK awsnerd this question verry well





I 2 feel warm towards koreans don't know why realy


and the last people on earth to judge The Turks of Anatolia are the chinese

I'm going to Turkey this July. So excited.

were and when r u going mabey i can give you some advice what to see and what to do

Why would the Chinese judge the Turks ?? . This thread is about Koreans and Turks, keep other outsiders out please.

srry i thought one of those dudes were chinese my bad.

Lot of chinese go to other chat to bash but vise versa it doesn't work

not all of them ofc.

n_n they are all koreans

keepin it in the family

tujue are u a turk? there was a genocide in armenia, women and children killed and raped. whole villages massacred.

yes I am a Turk but not from Turkey

what records of that do you have.

The armenian & french records are closed but the Ottoman are open to everyone.

Even if there was A socalled "genocide" why should the people of Secular Turkey appologise for what happend during the Ottoman empire.

It's only natural because you only know what is released in the western media

sorry since this is not a thread on the armenian massacre I dont wanna argue with you on this, but i have an armenian friend who lost close relatives, so I take his word rather than yours, I recommend you do some research.

I'm not going to arue about this with you either if you have an armenian friend cuz you know...

I have lost family 2 because of the armenian terrorists there were lossed on both side. What about the Turkish genoside in Hodjali I bet you never heard about that did you. Cuz we don't like to talk about stuff like that inlike the armenians.

My family used to live in Georgia near tiflis were dashnac was astablished aka armenian terrorists(not officially ofc) They killed ethnic Turk families including azeris and meskhetians. and yes there are georgians documents abou this

I do not hate armenians I know 2 armenians guys from school we are okay with eachother talk to them on every break but ofc never about that.


And please do not tell me to do some research buddy okay thank you.


you tell me one thing and I'm not making this up

why is armenia hated or disliked by every neigbouring country exept Iran but they haven't got the best ties with everybody else do they?

^i am aware of armenian terrorist actions, this is linked with its extreme poverty. Turkish government does not apologise and denies the massacre. thats where the problem is.

i'm not talking about now i'm talking about 1800's and 1900's mate

Turkey is becoming increasingly unstable and militant. Getting involved with Turkey will land Koreans into trouble:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=...amp;btnG=Search


Turkey Attack Sparks Concerns of Military Incursion
Written by TML Staff
Published Tuesday, June 05, 2007

A deadly attack on a military outpost in eastern Turkey is likely to increase tension between Turkey and Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq, raising concerns of an extensive military incursion.

Seven Turkish policemen were killed in the attack in which a Kurdish fighter rammed a vehicle into the military post and detonated a hand grenade.

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Turkey reserved the right to act against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq.

The United States, the European Union and Iraqi Kurdish groups have warned Turkey to refrain from a military incursion into northern Iraq to crack down on PKK bases.

Kurdish calls for independence have grown stronger since the 1980s and a similar situation in northern Iraq added to Turkey’s concerns, especially after the 1991 Gulf War.

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 gave the de facto autonomy of the Iraqi-Kurdish region a further boost.

Turkey fears the PKK will use northern Iraq as a safe haven to carry out attacks on Turkey.

It also fears that if Kurds in Iraq do become independent, this will further embolden Kurdish separatism in southeast Turkey.

Turkey increased its military build-up close to its border with Iraq, following a series of Kurdish attacks.

Ankara maintains its military build-up on the border with Iraq amounts to routine measures to secure the border.

Over the past few months Turkey has threatened to invade Iraq if the latter did not put an end to PKK infiltrations.

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_deta...sp?NewsID=17888

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=...tnG=Search+News

^seriously what do you expect Turkey to do?

July 13th ~ July 22nd.

Checkpoints: Istanbul - Adana - Iskenderun - Antakya (Antioch) - Cappadocia - Istanbul. I've got lots of info already.

^I'm verry happy you are going for the cultural tour and not the "Tourist" tour (sun sea and beach all day)-

the relationship is beautiful

maybe i should visit turkey this thanksgiving haha.

I think this might be a reason they are buying alot of military weapons from us.

it surely isn't the good craftsmenshift

turkey is a good ally to us and all, but let's face the facts here. we are talking about a country that never acknowledged their atrocity against countries like armenia, greece, and bosnia. killing whole bunch of people during ottoman turk empire and yet they never apologized to those atrocities or teach what they did to kids. I don't like countries being dishonest with what they did in the past like japan.

turkey is an @$$hole country in my dictionary. trying to save their own face by denying what they did in the past.

Hmmm Debating with a guy that uses assholecountry



First of all you are a ignorant dumb fu-k to be honest and all.

Lets face the facts here

1. Turk did nothing wrong in Bosnia. Accualy the ottomans invested alot into Bosnaia mabey the most of All in the empire. Even today Bosnians are Good friends with Turkey. Accualy verry good friends I can say.

2. The greeks never claimed a genocide only there hardcore nationalsists do. During the end of the ottoman empire and establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Lots of greeks moved 2 Greece and the Turks living in the former areas of the Ottoman empire moved 2 Turkey. This ws called peoples exchange back than. Second of all there are no problems between the greeks and the Turks that $hit is just politics. You don't have to take my word for it.

3. fu-k armenians just because you know a few of them or read some $hit on the net.

i'm not even from Turkey what do I care

not bosnia, i meant bulgaria.

and yeah, I'm not really too deep into this whole turk's history but I do know the fact that they did a lot of masscre around their neighbors during the empire.


then dont care. don't try to reply to my posts. if you do, you are only contradicting yourself.

It isn't bulgaria either the Turkic minorities there(not that i didn't say Turkish). The Bulgars are a Turkish speaking people who came from CA and settled there between 9th & 10th century. The people were the country is named after weren't safe after the Ottomans lost that region. Lots of disscrimination and all the things conected to that. Most of them fled to Turkey or are still being discriminated against today.

Like I said the only people who have beef with Turkey is Armenia


List of neighbouring countries 2 armenia

Georgia
Turkey
Azerbaycan
Iran

List of countries who don't like armenia and won't open there borders with armenia
Georgia
Turkey
azerbaycan


only Iran has some trade relation ships with them

And thats because The armenians occupy azerbaycani land and invade and killed alot of people there but thats war. Because of armenia there is a small little country between Turky armenia and Iran wich ones belonged 2 azerbaycan but no is devided by a few kilometers just because the armenians wanted a border with people which don't disslike them.

There's no shame in admitting to one's atrocities and apologizing for it. Such an apology is a gesture of goodwill and a show of civility and leadership. This is something that Japan lacks, and why they really suck in my view. But then again, it'd be also lame to hold a grudge over something that has been done centuries ago.

admit what

to be serious

People want them to admit something they didn't I'm not saying that there weren't people killed. People died on both sides. Including my people. But the west with west I mean france specially cuz all the armos live there.

That the ottomans did something like the germans and if anyone had knowledge about this you could see that it was nothing like that.

The Royal ottoman library in Turkey has opend it's archives fully for anyone who wants to read those official documents. But yet the french & Armenian documents are not open for public viewing.

all i'm saying.


cuz I accualy did some research and didn't take someones word for it. I realy not from some gay that never been to the country and lives in the states and stuff. Im talking about the armo kids when there thought about there culture is the "holocaust". What do you think there point of view is about ths

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Turkish.php

there are many more facts out there. tujue, it is ok to argue that todays turks cannot be held responsible for the past, but its not ok to defend it, like you are doing.

awww Wiki hell no don't thrust wiki to be honest.

Second of all the western media is comparing it with The jewish holocaust and there is no comparing those 2.

I basicly don't give a rats @$$ about armenians and they can forget the applogy. Even if the people would appologies.

1. Armenians would want there land back(fact: those lands haven't been armenian for the past 1500 years or longer)
2. If armenians would lay claim on the kurds would want some 2.
3. Etc etc basicly Turkey is the only line wich is deviding europe from Arabs aka potential terrorists in the eyes of europe.
4. The reason why i'm writing here is basicly people who don't anything or next to nothing are just randomly posting stuff wich is half true in a thread wich is not about this subject.

the Ottoman records state that there were +- 300.000 armenians killed from the 1.5 million or so armenians armenian claim over 1.5 million were killed something doesn't add up here

tujue, killing 300,000 of a specific ethnicity is still a genocide. Again, I don't really think an apology is warratned. But then again, it would be a show of goodwill, civility and leadership if such an apology and perhaps some reparations from civilian organizations. For example, the Korean government issued an official apology conducted reparation efforts for some Vietnamese villages that were abused by the Korean army during the Vietnam War.

Blood brother: You guys don't even look that much alike. Same mother, diff. father maybe?

ireland and northern ireland are not at war. northern ireland is fighting itself.....
please dont mention things you dont know about.

OMG your an idiot




Bloodblother has nothing to do with genetics or anything.

A freakin monkey and a goldfish could be bloobrothers it's the bond that they have nothing else


Your such an idiot