Turkish leaders leave for TRNC

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (A.A) - January 17, 2012 - Turkish leaders departed from Turkey for Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on Tuesday to attend the funeral ceremony of deceased former Turkish Cypriot president Rauf Denktas.  President Abdullah Gul departed from Istanbul, while Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan left from capital Ankara to participate in the funeral ceremony of Denktas who will be laid to rest at Cumhuriyet Park in Lefkosa. Turkish deputy premiers Ali Babacan and Bekir Bozdag, Family & Social Policies Minister Fatma Sahin, EU Minister Egemen Bagis, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, National Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz, and several other high-level officials also left from Ankara for Lefkosa. Rauf Denktas died at the age of 88 on Friday.