‘Turkey’s independent foreign policy advantageous to US’

Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the US upon the invitation of President Barack Obama, Tüzmen, who is the deputy chairman for the AK Party’s foreign affairs, noted that in addition to trade and economic relations, regional issues would also be discussed during the visit.

“It is going to be a very important meeting for both Turkey and the US as well as for countries in the region. A wide range of topics will come up during the meeting. Regional issues, the evaluation of sector-related topics from the perspective of foreign trade, Turkey’s current predicament and relations with neighboring and regional countries may all be included in the meeting,” Tüzmen said.

He talked about the radical changes that had taken place in foreign trade with the recent strategy that Turkey had implemented, named the neighboring and regional countries strategy, and said: “Our trade with neighboring and regional countries was around 7 percent [of total trade]. In a very short period this figure increased to 49 percent with the new strategy. The sevenfold increase in our trade [with neighboring and regional countries], which was around 7 percent just seven years ago, is very important for the US as well. That is because Turkey has become a trade partner with countries that are also important for the US. The inclusion of countries such as Iran, Iraq, Syria and Russia carries a separate meaning for the US. Turkey’s extraordinary success in the recent period and the improvement of its credit rating increases the weight of economic aspects in bilateral relations.”

Regional integration

Turkey conducts close to half of its total foreign trade with countries in the region, the AK Party deputy chairman said and contributes to the increase in regional wealth. “Our endeavor includes regional integration, in other words it includes the product-sharing model. It is integrative work ranging from what product and service is best suited to what country to how other countries supplement that product. What underlies the exportation of finished products from Turkey to foreign markets is that Turkey is shifting its emerging sectors to countries that need them. This way not only do they benefit from cheap labor there, but it also contributes to the country’s workforce. When we add other tools such as free trade agreements, integrated economic commissions, delegations and fairs, the result is a regional integration that yields positive result for everyone.”

Tüzmen underlined that each relationship with neighboring countries is important in different ways and said it was very likely these relations would be discussed during Erdoğan’s visit to the US. Turkey has made clear that it does not want a nuclear threat in the region and is pursuing a balanced policy over the issue. Trade with Iran has increased tenfold in the last seven years, reaching $10 billion. He pointed out that Turkey’s trade with Syria and Iraq, which was less than half a billion dollars, has increased to around $5 billion and that Turkey has become an important trade partner with Iran as well as with Russia, with which it has a trade volume of $50 billion.

Tüzmen said this transformation, which had attracted much attention in the world, had not been easy and that there have been recent attempts to make the same unfair criticisms that were directed against the government when the neighboring and regional countries strategy was initially implemented. He highlighted that Turkey’s historic, cultural and geographical ties with neighboring and regional countries were crucial advantages. “We made clear that we could use the common links with neglected neighboring and regional countries for the development of Turkey and the region. We were subjected to unfair criticism, but we did not pay attention to it and within seven years we made sure this epic was written. This offers important advantages not only for Turkey and the region but for world peace.”

Tüzmen explained that a discussion over regional problems during the Obama-Erdoğan meeting would not affect Turkey’s regional enhancement strategy. “Turkey will continue the endeavors it started in the region for friendship, peace and enhancement. It will adhere to mutual agreements. If there is a task Turkey is carrying out it will pursue it to the very end. This goes for all countries. However, while we improve our trade with neighbors we will not change our stance on the nuclear threat that poses a danger to humanity. We are saying very clearly that we do not want a nuclear threat in our region. We are saying this to all countries. We will repeat this while continuing to trade because this is very important for us as well. Because the more trade you do the more you can contribute to peace. We need to continue to step up foreign trade in order to be powerful and provide a substantial contribution to friendship and peace.”

He said a request of that nature would be unpleasant considering that millions of people have been victimized in Azerbaijan, and went on to say: “We will reach a decision on that issue in line with our own assessments. We prepared and presented this initiative with sincerity. Relations with Armenia developed a little differently than relations with neighboring and surrounding countries. While generally a bottom-up strategy starting with trade and then diplomacy was followed, with Armenia a top-down strategy was followed. It was an endeavor that began with steps taken by our president and prime minister. The common point in both strategies is solving current problems and looking ahead.”