KUALA LUMPUR: Turkey will share its experience dealing with the recent military coup in the 9th International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) which begins today.

Turkey’s AK Parti deputy chairman of foreign affairs Afif Demirkiran said the conference would be a platform to share the country’s experience dealing with terror activities and to persuade other participating countries to declare their stand on terrorism.

“The conference is very important… We want all our Asean friends, no matter what their ideology is, to stand in support of Turkey and to declare their stand on terrorism.

“Terrorism is something we all have to fight together, but when the July 15 incident (the attempted coup) happened, many of the European and other leaders from around the world did not react in time.

“Those were the longest days for us in Turkey and we want to share our feelings with our colleagues here in Kuala Lumpur,” he said at the residence of the Turkish ambassador to Malaysia.

Present were Turkish ambassador to Malaysia Basak Turkoglu and AK Parti chairman of foreign affairs Meryem Goka.

Demirkiran said the conference, which would be attended by 72 parties from 36 countries, would look into the issue of empowerment of women and immigrants.

“We will organise a special meeting, probably on Nov 1 in Turkey, to discuss another important issue — immigrants.

“In Turkey, we have about three million refugees from Syria and Iraq.

“They are our friends so we share what we have with them and we are happy to do it, but everybody would (eventually) want to return to their home country.

This is the message that we want to share in the conference,” he added.

Held once every two years, the last general assembly of the ICAPP was held in Manila.-nst