Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan hosted U.S. Secretary John Kerry, who arrived in Ankara yesterday, for a meeting later in the day. The meeting, which was also attended by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, took place at the Prime Ministry Official Residence and lasted two hours and 15 minutes.

After the meeting, a statement released by the Prime Ministry said, "During the meeting, a model partnership was discussed as were bilateral relations." The statement also underlined the determination on both sides to increase joint trade volume and noted that the situation in Syria and other regional issues were also discussed during the meeting between Kerry and Prime Minister Erdoğan.

A GIFT OF A PHOTOGRAPH

President Abdullah Gül also hosted Kerry yesterday at the Çankaya Palace. At the start of the meeting, which took place in a warm and friendly atmosphere, President Gül showed Kerry a photograph taken in 2008 when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Kerry paid a visit to Ankara.

Kerry asked the president to sign something on the photograph, "Can you write, 'the most important three men?" joked Kerry. Gül instead wrote, "I am with the three most important men in the Obama administration," and signed the photograph presenting it to Kerry as a gift.