Turkish interior minister pays visit to Bulgaria

By Sefa Mutlu and Ihvan Radoykov

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Interior Minister and his delegation on Friday paid an official visit to the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

During the visit, Suleyman Soylu met with his Bulgarian counterpart Mladen Marinov and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Both meetings were closed to the media.

"Minister's visit will reinforce historic ties between the governments and peoples of the two strategic and friendly allies, and also help explore new areas of bilateral cooperation and collaboration, particularly in the area of economic, trade and commercial relations," according to sources of the ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Borisov told Soylu about his great friendship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the excellent cooperation between the two countries, according to Turkish officials.

Muhterem Ince, deputy interior minister of Turkey; Hasan Ulusoy, Turkey's ambassador in Sofia; Bulgarian chief prosecutor Sotir Tzatzarov and many other high-level officials attended the meetings.

The meetings focused on security cooperation to fight organized crime, drug trafficking, irregular migration and terrorism, as well as eliminating the financing sources and funds of terror groups such as the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), PYD/PKK, DAESH and DHKP-C, the sources added.