Turkey and Pakistan recently celebrated 70 years of diplomatic relations with a joint stamp issue.
The joint issue depicts the portrait of Mehmet Akif Ersoy, who wrote the Turkish national anthem, on the left stamp and Allama Muhammad Iqbal, who is Pakistan’s national poet, on the right stamp.
“During the past 70 years, Pakistan-Turkey relationship has blossomed in all fields,” said Syrus Sajjad Qazi, Pakistan’s ambassador to Turkey, at the unveiling last November. “We have stood by each other, supported each other, and felt the pain and compassion for each other.”
Qazi added the two poets’, both of who died in the 1930s, continue to provide inspiration to both countries.
“They left an indelible imprint on the hearts, minds and souls of the two nations. They indeed made Pakistan and Turkey, two countries, one nation,” he said, adding the countries’ relationship, which began shortly after Pakistan gained its independence from India in 1947, is an “unparalleled, unprecedented and indissoluble relationship of brotherhood, mutual trust, affection and selflessness.”