The trade volume between the two countries has reached $15 billion, and over 400 Italian companies are currently operating in Turkey.
Only nine years ago Italy, under the premiership of current Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, had witnessed a worsening of relations between the two countries. D'Alema played a significant role in the provision of a temporary sanctuary to Abdullah Öcalan, the now-imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who was at the time looking for a country in which to hide.
D'Alema, at the time refusing to brand Öcalan as the leader of a terrorist organization, also refused to extradite him to Turkey; Öcalan was later brought to Turkey from Kenya by Turkish special forces with significant help from the United States.
In retaliation for Italy's stance over Öcalan, Ankara imposed economic sanctions on Rome. As might have been expected, sanctions also hit Turkey when Italy asked Turkish businessmen to immediately pay their debts for textile equipment they bought from Italy, instead of an earlier deal of payment by installment.
Italy's refusal to extradite Öcalan to Turkey also came during those years when Turkey was still known for grave human rights violations. Any nation with a bad human rights record would have never been able to sufficiently justify its cause, even if it was right. These were the circumstances when Italy adopted a negative stance towards Turkey on the Öcalan and PKK issues.
In the early and mid-1990s, not only Italy but also other European countries such as Germany, and Turkey's close ally, the United States, pursued adverse policies against Turkey that culminated with, for example, serious arms embargoes due to Ankara's poor human rights record as well as its disproportional use of force in its fight against the PKK, mainly in the country's Kurdish-dominated eastern and southeastern regions.
On the whole Turkey's image in the world during those years was extremely negative, but it started to change in the late 1990s and in early 2000, when Ankara started enacting serious military and civilian reforms in an attempt to bring itself to up to the EU's democratic standards -- though we still have a long way to go.
We should also look at the reasons Turkey and Italy have currently been enjoying good relations despite this background.
We saw a different D'Alema during his recent visit to İstanbul, where the Turkish-Italian Business Forum held its fourth meeting. This time in his capacity as Italy's foreign minister, D'Alema acknowledged Turkey's right to defend itself against the terrorists while stating that terrorist attacks coming out of Iraq against Turkey were unacceptable.
However D'Alema also advised Turkey to prioritize diplomacy in its search for international support in its fight against the PKK.
As a matter of fact, the more steps Turkey takes to improve its democracy, the more it resorts to diplomacy in solving internal and external disputes. For example, despite enormous internal pressure exerted on the Turkish political leadership to invade northern Iraq to crack down on the PKK terrorists, its patient policy of prioritizing diplomacy while using the threat of military force stands as proof of Turkey's increased maturity in handling its problems.
A Turkey learning the rules of the game in international diplomacy has also been contributing significantly to the increase in the nation's trade ties with countries worldwide.
Those trade ties sometimes involve the lucrative arms business, as has been the case with Italy. Italian Agusta Westland won Turkey's nearly $3 billion attack helicopter tender this year. As long as Turkey safeguards its interests in the procurement of arms that will boost its long-neglected defense infrastructure while decreasing its heavy reliance on foreign military technologies, there should be no problem if it forges defense ties with Italy or with any other country.
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