Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Prince Kiko of Japan visited people in Istanbul on December 6.

They met to talk about people with a historical and business history to Japan. At a beautiful palace, Çırağan, the meeting took place where they met academicians and members of the Turkish-Japanese merit associations. Acknowledgment of Koray Gökberk, Ayşe Özalp, and Sevil Atıcı was one of the main parts of the meeting. These were flight attendants who, in the 1985 Tehran incident, facilitated the safe return of Japanese nationals to Turkey.

There was a strong evidence of their pride in working on the humanitarian operation. In the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war, over 215 Japanese people found themselves stranded in Tehran. When threats increase in multiples, e.g., to civil airplanes, a secondary evacuation has been impractible. Turkish flight crew worked heroically and successfully conducted an operation of an evacuation of people stranded to Ankara under challenging conditions.

The royal pair’s visit to Turkey, which opened the week prior, began with a visit to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan. While in Ankara, they paid respects to one of the most important figures in Turkish history, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, by visiting his tomb. They visited on December 5th while in Istanbul, the historic Hagia Sophia.

This time, for the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Japan, they have arrived at the country to officially note the occasion. They also plan to visit Kırşehir’s Kaman district to watch the collaborative work of Turkish and Japanese archaeologists at an excavation project.