Georgia-Turkey to create a joint operative group to respond to extradition, kidnaping issues
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, December 21
Georgian and Turkish Justice Ministers agreed in Ankara on Wednesday about the creation of a joint operative group to urgently respond to the extradition, children kidnaping, prisoner handover and prisoners’ rights protection issues.
Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani made the offer as “such issues need to be responded timely.”
Tsulukiani and her Turkish counterpart Abdulhamit Gul also agreed about the sharing of experience in the justice and penitentiary fields.
Tsulukiani stated that she and Gul agreed about the meeting during the Copenhagen Ministerial in April 2018.
“After the meeting scales for cooperation have increased as in July the Georgian parliament made a decision to merge Justice and Correction ministries,” Tsulukiani said.
“Taking the everyday regional challenges into account, creation an operative group composed of Georgian and Turkish representatives will ease responses to the issues which concern the rights of Georgian prisoners in Turkish jails, extradition issues, children kidnapping cases, handing over of prisoners and related issues,” Tsulukiani said.
Tsulukiani says that the activities of the group will save time as much bureaucracy could be avoided.
Gul hailed the merger of Georgian justice and correction ministries as a right step and accepted the offer regarding the working group.
He said he was ready to further enhance Turkish and Georgian relations in the justice and penitentiary fields and share Turkish relations, which has more than 200,000 inmates, with Georgia.
Tsulukiani stated that Georgia has accumulated experiences regarding human rights, combating organized crime, reforming the justice filed and that the government of Georgia is eager to share the experience with Turkey and other partner nations.
Gul also said that Georgia and Turkey need to further enhance ties in terms of fighting against terrorism.
Tsulukiani invited her counterpart to Georgia. For his part, Gul invited Tsulukiani in Cappadocia in the summer.
