Turkey’s Education Minister Nimet Çubukçu paid a surprise visit to the Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation and held an exclusive meeting that lasted for roughly half an hour with the foundation’s president Bedros Şirinoğlu last weekend, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“All visits to the hospital are [normally] scheduled from many days ahead, whereas Minister Çubukçu’s visit was quite abrupt. Frankly that was quite a surprise. We primarily spoke about the election process,” Şirinoğlu said.

“Turkey is undergoing a process of change. The Turkish people want to know more about the peoples they are living together with. As of course, there is also some curiosity within political parties, [and] that is very favorable,” said Şirinoğlu, who met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 26.

“These visits were quite natural, frank and sincere,” said Şirinoğlu, despite objections arising from the Armenian community.