It was an emotional moment for vice-president Hamid Ansari when he was gifted an old photograph of his great granduncle who had led a medical mission to Turkey in 1913 during the Balkan Wars.
Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Cemil Cicek presented the vice-president with an old photograph of his great granduncle M.A. Ansari, who had led a medical mission to the country to provide aid to the Turkish army in the Balkan Wars.
The Indian vice-president was also given a folder carrying the correspondences and the news reports about the event during that period.
The folder entitled “Dr Ansari and his activities during Ottoman Empire in the light of documents” had among other pieces of paper also a telegram sent to the Turkish Red Crescent by the editor of Comrade Newspaper in December 1912.
The Turkish Red Crescent is the largest humanitarian organisation in Turkey and is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
The organisation was founded under the Ottoman Empire on 11 June 1868 and was named “Hilal-i Ahmer Cemiyeti” (the name “Hilal e Ahmar” is still the equivalent in Arabic). It was renamed Kizilay by Mustafa Kemal Atartuk in 1935, after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. Like its counterparts in other countries, it is non-governmental organisation. — PTI