December 19, 2019, Alpaslan KAVAKLIOĞLU, the Deputy Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Turkey, was awarded with "Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star" by the Japanese Government at the ceremony hosted by Japan’s Ambassador to Turkey.  

Alpaslan KAVAKLIOĞLU, whose contributions to the strengthening of Japan-Turkey relations and development of collaboration between parliamentarians for many years were greatly appreciated by the Japanese Government, was decided upon to be awarded with Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Emperor of Japan this autumn. 

Alpaslan KAVAKLIOĞLU exerted efforts to establish the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) after attending the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) disaster prevention program in Japan for 6 months in 2000.  AFAD had carried out the dispatch process of search and rescue teams from Turkey following the Great East Japan Earthquake which occurred in March 2011 and carried out search and rescue activities in Japan for three weeks.

Elected as a parliament member for the first time in 2011 as the Justice and Development Party’s Niğde PM, Alpaslan KAVAKLIOĞLU had carried out his duty as a Chairman of the Turkey-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group for two terms since 2014, for four years.