Abdullah Gul meets France's Hollande, UN's Ban in New York

Turkish President Abdullah Gul held talks with French President Francois Hollande in New York on the latest develeopments in Syria and Turkey's EU bid process, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session. The two presidents stressed the need of the deal on destroying the chemical weapons in Syria should be tranformed into UN Security Council resolution and confirmed maintanence of existing cooperation on solving the crisis in Syria.  On Turkey's EU bid, Gul said that Turkey attached big importance to opening new chapters on accession negotiation while Hollande expressed France's support to Turkey's EU process. French president also noted that he plans to pay a visit to Turkey in the coming days, which Gul stated would enhance relations between the two countries. After delivering a speech at UN session on sustainable developments, Turkish President Gul also attended a lunch hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and had conversation with US President Barack Obama during the lunch.  Then, Gul hosted a reception in Turkevi [a Turkish center] in New York, due to Turkey's candidacy for non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council for the period of 2015-2016. Many heads of states including Palestinian President Mahmod Abbas, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Somali President Hasan Sheikh Mohamoud, ambassadors and representatives including Arab League-United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi took part in the reception.