Jeffrey said the $15 billion in trade between the two countries is tilted heavily in the US’s favor but that Turkey is making progress, citing for example how automotive exports to America went from practically zero to $400 million in one year with Ford Otosan, and that during troubled economic times. He also mentioned Turkey’s great work in aviation, saying that Turkish industry had contributed an important component to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.One never knows where the next innovative company will come from, but I was happy to meet Can Demirer, the export manager for Öztiryakiler, and learn how the steel goods manufacturer has succeeded in reaching out to foreign markets. I first heard of this company more than 10 years ago. At that time they were famous for making high quality teapots and other kitchen equipment and were just then beginning to export, first of all to Russia.
Now a decade later the company also makes hotel banqueting tables and chairs -- even the ones we were sitting on at the Dedeman Hotel -- and exports to markets as far away as Chile. Öztiryakiler supplies field kitchens to the US Army for their operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and is also trying to market the same kitchens for international disaster relief efforts. Take this square box any place you want, open the sides and using either diesel fuel or gas, within hours you can be preparing meals for 800 people.
You never know where the next disaster may strike. For example, my daughter was visiting from Bali and last weekend went with friends for a day or two of snowboarding at Kartalkaya, near Bolu. Unfortunately the hotel they stayed at had a malfunction of its heating system and most of the guests had to go to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning, my daughter and her friends were the only people in the whole hotel who were not affected.
My daughter lives in Bali, Indonesia, and was delighted to recover from her brush with death via Balinese massage at the hotel’s spa; the hotel charged TL 200, versus $5 for the same massage in Bali, so look at the profit they’re making on that export. I see the same phenomenon here in Turkey; for example, children’s pants sell in the Beyoğlu bazaar for TL 1, whereas similar pants sell for TL 48 in a department store on Bağdat Caddesi.
My daughter sprained her wrist falling off the snowboard then almost got poisoned, but that was not enough for her. On his way down the mountain, the driver pulled over to remove the snow chains and then almost immediately lost control on the icy surface and slid off the road, bumped into a sign pole and stopped just short of what my daughter described as the steepest cliff she’d ever seen. Why does a kid tell her father such things?
She said the car had special snow tires that grip the ice when the car starts sliding, that she could feel the tires catch the road. Some new technology, which she described as spikes that shoot out from the tire.
Ambassador Jeffrey said that foreign direct investment is especially important for Turkey because it leads to technology transfer. I wonder if Bridgestone or Goodyear are making these super snow tires in Turkey, or are these the hi-tech tires that can only be made at the most advanced plants? That’s a rhetorical question, as all that really matters to me is that the car carrying my precious daughter down a mountain road in Anatolia had the tires, no matter where they were made.
On her last day here she visited the Archeological Museum, Topkapı Palace, Santralistanbul and the Grand Bazaar, then went to the Nardis Jazz Club until 2:30 in the morning. I worried that she might be overdoing it, but then she’s only 25, and I’m old, so I said, get a grip on yourself, man.
