Mr. Bekir Şahin, General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeal, paid an official visit to Azerbaijan between 29 May–3 June 2021 upon the invitation of Mr. Kamran Aliyev, General Prosecutor of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The accompanying delegation of Mr. Bekir Şahin  consisted of Mr. Ömer Kara, Ms. Dr. İlknur Altuntaş, Mr. Turan Kuloğlu and Mr. Salih Ay, Prosecutors of the General Prosecution Office of the Supreme Court of Appeal.

           It was the first official visit of Mr. Bekir Şahin after successful completion of the operation carried out by Azerbaijan for the liberation of the occupied territories against the attacks of Armenia, started on 27 September 2020.

           During the meetings held within the framework of the visit, further strengthening of the existing legal cooperation between two brother countries, which are grounded on the notion “One Nation Two States”, was evaluated and mutual opinions were exchanged. A new Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 31 May 2021 to replace the Memorandum of Understanding signed on 16 March 2015 in order to strengthen cooperation and share experiences between the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the General Prosecution Office of the Supreme Court of Appeal. Mr. Şahin was awarded with a “medal” by Mr. Kamran Aliyev, General Prosecutor of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the strong cooperation and friendly relations with General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

            Moreover, negotiations were held on the draft founding document of “Council of General Prosecutors of Turkic Council Member States” in order to develop and strengthen cooperation, and to create a permanent consultation and working opportunity between the General Prosecution Offices of the member states of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States.

         During the visit, Mr. Şahin and his accompanying delegation were received by Mr. İlham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Mr. Şahin and his delegation had meetings with Mr. Ramiz Rzayev, the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal and Mr. Fikrat Mammadov, Minister of Justice of Azerbaijan. Within the scope of the Program, the delegation visited the Ganja City Prosecutor’s Office and it was seen that the places where 26 civilians died and 142 people were injured by the ballistic missile attacks carried out four times in October 2020 by the Armenians during the 44-day Nagorno-Karabakh War under the claim that these places were military facilities, are civilian residential areas in Ganja city center.         

              Announced respectfully.

Deputy General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeal Mr. Rıdvan Gündoğdu and the Public Prosecutors of the Supreme Court of Appeal Mr. Muammer Yücel, Mr. Seyithan Öztürk, Mr. İbrahim Hakan Tosun and Ms. Ayben İyisoy attended the International Conference on “Protection of the Euro in Bulgaria and the countries of South-Eastern Europe and Balkan Region, Achievements and Challenges for Law Enforcement Authorities”, organized by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria, under the project “General Supervision of Legality in Compliance with Legislation in the State”, financed by the European Commission under the Pericles 2020 Programme.

At the Conference, Mr. Rıdvan Gündoğdu, Deputy General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeal, made a presentation about the works carried out in our country on combating money counterfeiting. Also, Mr. Gündoğdu held bilateral meeting with Mr. Ivan Geshev, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Mr. Sergey Grigorenko, Deputy Head of the Extradition Department of the General Department of International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation,  Ms. Marina Voronina, Mr. Mikhail Moturenko, Senior Prosecutors of the Extradition Department of the General Department of International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and accompanying delegation, visiting Ankara upon the official invitation of the Ministry of Justice, paid an official visit to Mr. Bekir Şahin, General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeal. During the meeting, mutual information and opinions were exchanged and evaluations were made on steps to be taken for improving cooperation.

Retreat program which is the third of four separate activities envisaged to be carried out by the General Prosecution Office of the Supreme Court of Appeal within the scope of our country’s 2020-2021 chairmanship term for the Southeast European Cooperation Process was held on May 21-26, 2021 in Ankara. Prosecutors from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Moldova, Montenegro and Romania participated in the Program. The delegation consisted of Mr. Arens Çela, Prosecutor, Head of Monitoring Sector in the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Albania, Mrs. Pranvera Pustina, Prosecutor, Director of Cabinet at the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Albania, Ms. Vedrana Mijović, Prosecutor at the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ms. Marina Radović, Legal Officer at the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ms. Emilena Popova and Ms. Steliyana Atanasova, Prosecutors at the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor`s Office of Bulgaria, Mr. Miloš Šoškić, State Prosecutor at the High State Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro, Mr. Miljan Vlaovic, Advisor of Supreme State Prosecutor at the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Offıce of Montenegro, Mr. Iachimovschi Octavian and Mr. Muntean Victor, Prosecutors at the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office of Moldova, Mr. Voicu Bogdan Felician, Chief Prosecutor-Section for Combating Drug Trafficking at DIICOT - Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism of Romania and Mrs. Kelemen Narcisa Rodica, Prosecutor at DIICOT - Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism of Romania.

Within the scope of the Program, information was given about the Turkish judicial system by emphasizing the importance of developing distinctive cooperation mechanisms among the countries in the region and evaluations were made on the fact that the development of personal relations and communication network between colleagues will make a great contribution to strengthen mutual cooperation. Also, the delegation visited Antalya Courthouse and Antalya Regional Court of Appeal.