A colourful diplomatic year comes to an end

27. December 2005,
Swissinfo
swissinfo-interview: Thomas Stephens

Ankara's ambassador to Bern, Alev Kiliç, looks back on a difficult year for Swiss-Turkish relations and gives swissinfo an update on their current state of health.
[...]
swissinfo: 2005 has been a particularly challenging year for Swiss-Turkish relations ? Armenia, Deiss's cancelled trip to Ankara, the football match... Are Swiss-Turkish relations worse today than on January 1?

A.K.: My answer would be no. Yes, this has been a challenging year, but the Armenian issue is not something new. It has been under the surface for decades [...].
[...].

swissinfo: How do you think the Swiss and Turkish public see each other?

A.K.: The Turkish public has always had great esteem for Switzerland and the Swiss people and I do not think that things have changed for the negative on that despite some of these fluctuations.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.