Turkish PM Erdo?an to visit Tunisia

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an is set to make an official visit to Tunisia in March, Tunisian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Ridha Saidi has said. Speaking at the first Turkey-Maghreb Cultural Forum, Saidi said Erdo?an will head a sizeable delegation which will include a large group of businessmen. The visit is set to serve as a launching pad for strengthened relations between the two countries since the signing of an agreement to establish a Tunisian-Turkish higher council for strategic co-operation, Saidi said. The rise of Islamist rule led by Ennahda movement in Tunisia has brought the two countries closer together with Erdo?an's Islamist Freedom and Development party regime. While some have said Ennahda has been seeking to establish a similar system to that produced by Erdo?an in Turkey, the movement's leader Rachid Ghannouchi has slammed statement by the Turkish PM's in which he spoke in favour of secularism. "Tunis is a republic, Arabic is its language and Islam is its religion," Ghannouchi said. He added: "We appreciate the success of the Turkish experiment but we are not obliged to import models. There are other models of modernity in France and America. Modernity means being open to all sorts of possibilities and Tunisia is open to all forms of modernity and will move within its Arab circle."