Xinhua, Ankara :
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his tour covering three Latin American countries this week to promote his country’s political and business ties with the region.
He visited Colombia on Tuesday as his first leg of the tour that also covers Cuba and Mexico. Given that Mexico and Columbia are among the largest economies of Latin America, the trip is mainly focused on trade and investment.
Erdogan’s visit is the first one made to this region at the presidential level since 1995 when former president Suleyman Demirel visited Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
The Turkish president was accompanied by cabinet members from the foreign ministry, agriculture, tourism, and economy as well as businesspeople.
Necati Kutlu, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Ankara University, said Turkey’s initiative to forge closer ties with Latin America will bring positive developments to the bilateral ties Turkey has with each Latin American countries.
“Nobody should be surprised if our trade and investments with Latin American countries will double in the near future,” he remarked.
Erdogan’s first stop in Colombia covers an economic forum as well as bilateral exchanges with his counterpart Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos. Several cooperation deals were expected to sign in areas such as tourism, culture, education, trade and investment.
The Turkey-Colombia relationship has been strengthened since Santos paid a visit to Turkey in 2011. The trade volume between the two countries reached a record one billion U.S. dollars in 2014, an increase of 20 percent year-on-year basis, according to the Turkish government data.
The two countries have been negotiating a free trade agreement for some time but the finalization of the deal was delayed for several years.
Erdogan’s next stop would be Cuba on Wednesday, which will mark the highest-level visit from Turkey to the Caribbean country. FTA AND FLIGHTS ON TABLE WITH MEXICO
Erdogan will wrap up his Latin American tour by a visit to Mexico at the end of the week. He has already paid visits to Mexico twice in recent years as prime minister.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto visited Turkey in 2013, signing some agreements as part of the strategic partnership framework.
In Mexico, the top issues include negotiations on free trade agreements as well as aviation deals that will pave a way for Turkey’s national flag carrier THY to start flights from Istanbul to Mexico city. It was reported by Turkish daily Today’s Zaman that THY drags its feet over flying to Mexico due to disagreement over where the stopover should be.
The trade volume between Turkey and Mexico was 1.3 billion dollars last year, an increase of eight percent year-on-year basis.
The leaders of both countries are expected to announce their continuing commitment to promote MIKTA, a group composed of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia as well as to work together within the G20 whose presidency this year was undertaken by Turkey.
All three countries fit into Turkey’s declared Latin America Action Plan that took off in 2006 when Ankara started to diversify its trade and business partners in traditional markets.
It led to intensified high level exchanges between Turkey and Latin American countries since then, resulting with the establishment of political consultation mechanisms as well as joint business, trade and investment cooperation schemes. ERDOGAN’S ISLAMIST REMARKS HURT TURKEY’S IMAGE
The Turkish president in November claimed that Muslims, not Christopher Columbus, were the first foreigners to set foot in America, and suggested the construction of a mosque on a hill in Cuba where he claimed there was a mosque when Columbus had arrived.
His comments were delivered during the First Latin American Muslim Religious Leaders Summit in Istanbul, organized by Turkey’s official religious directorate.
Both the remarks and the summit irked the Latin American countries as many of them were not even aware of such a meeting of Muslim leaders from Latin America who were apparently invited by Turkish government.
Turkey’s opposition party also criticized Erdogan of twisting the political agenda through artificial debates like discussions over the discovery of America and the constructing of a mosque in Cuba.
Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli said Turkish president wants to distract public from real discussion on unemployment, corruption allegations and the huge expenses on newly built extravagant presidential palace.
In the meantime, Erdogan’s comments also hurt Turkey’s perception, according to analysts. And Turkey’s push to build a mosque in the Cuban capital of Havana has reinforced a perception that a religious flavor was added to Ankara’s Latin American initiative.
Ihsan Yilmaz, an academic and expert on international relations, said Erdogan abused Cuban Muslims for his own domestic political ambition.
“For Islamists, symbols are always more important than content and essence. That is why he is concerned about opening a mighty and bombastic mosque on the top of a hill in Cuba,” he noted.
“Even the probability of such a dream would motivate his religious supporters and make them believe that Erdogan is indeed the caliph, the leader of all Muslims on earth,” Yilmaz added.
Ibrahim Kalin, the president’s spokesperson, downplayed Erdogan’ s comments in January during a press conference, saying that laying the foundation of a mosque in Cuba is not for the moment on Turkey’s agenda.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his tour covering three Latin American countries this week to promote his country’s political and business ties with the region.
He visited Colombia on Tuesday as his first leg of the tour that also covers Cuba and Mexico. Given that Mexico and Columbia are among the largest economies of Latin America, the trip is mainly focused on trade and investment.
Erdogan’s visit is the first one made to this region at the presidential level since 1995 when former president Suleyman Demirel visited Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
The Turkish president was accompanied by cabinet members from the foreign ministry, agriculture, tourism, and economy as well as businesspeople.
Necati Kutlu, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Ankara University, said Turkey’s initiative to forge closer ties with Latin America will bring positive developments to the bilateral ties Turkey has with each Latin American countries.
“Nobody should be surprised if our trade and investments with Latin American countries will double in the near future,” he remarked.
Erdogan’s first stop in Colombia covers an economic forum as well as bilateral exchanges with his counterpart Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos. Several cooperation deals were expected to sign in areas such as tourism, culture, education, trade and investment.
The Turkey-Colombia relationship has been strengthened since Santos paid a visit to Turkey in 2011. The trade volume between the two countries reached a record one billion U.S. dollars in 2014, an increase of 20 percent year-on-year basis, according to the Turkish government data.
The two countries have been negotiating a free trade agreement for some time but the finalization of the deal was delayed for several years.
Erdogan’s next stop would be Cuba on Wednesday, which will mark the highest-level visit from Turkey to the Caribbean country. FTA AND FLIGHTS ON TABLE WITH MEXICO
Erdogan will wrap up his Latin American tour by a visit to Mexico at the end of the week. He has already paid visits to Mexico twice in recent years as prime minister.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto visited Turkey in 2013, signing some agreements as part of the strategic partnership framework.
In Mexico, the top issues include negotiations on free trade agreements as well as aviation deals that will pave a way for Turkey’s national flag carrier THY to start flights from Istanbul to Mexico city. It was reported by Turkish daily Today’s Zaman that THY drags its feet over flying to Mexico due to disagreement over where the stopover should be.
The trade volume between Turkey and Mexico was 1.3 billion dollars last year, an increase of eight percent year-on-year basis.
The leaders of both countries are expected to announce their continuing commitment to promote MIKTA, a group composed of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia as well as to work together within the G20 whose presidency this year was undertaken by Turkey.
All three countries fit into Turkey’s declared Latin America Action Plan that took off in 2006 when Ankara started to diversify its trade and business partners in traditional markets.
It led to intensified high level exchanges between Turkey and Latin American countries since then, resulting with the establishment of political consultation mechanisms as well as joint business, trade and investment cooperation schemes. ERDOGAN’S ISLAMIST REMARKS HURT TURKEY’S IMAGE
The Turkish president in November claimed that Muslims, not Christopher Columbus, were the first foreigners to set foot in America, and suggested the construction of a mosque on a hill in Cuba where he claimed there was a mosque when Columbus had arrived.
His comments were delivered during the First Latin American Muslim Religious Leaders Summit in Istanbul, organized by Turkey’s official religious directorate.
Both the remarks and the summit irked the Latin American countries as many of them were not even aware of such a meeting of Muslim leaders from Latin America who were apparently invited by Turkish government.
Turkey’s opposition party also criticized Erdogan of twisting the political agenda through artificial debates like discussions over the discovery of America and the constructing of a mosque in Cuba.
Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli said Turkish president wants to distract public from real discussion on unemployment, corruption allegations and the huge expenses on newly built extravagant presidential palace.
In the meantime, Erdogan’s comments also hurt Turkey’s perception, according to analysts. And Turkey’s push to build a mosque in the Cuban capital of Havana has reinforced a perception that a religious flavor was added to Ankara’s Latin American initiative.
Ihsan Yilmaz, an academic and expert on international relations, said Erdogan abused Cuban Muslims for his own domestic political ambition.
“For Islamists, symbols are always more important than content and essence. That is why he is concerned about opening a mighty and bombastic mosque on the top of a hill in Cuba,” he noted.
“Even the probability of such a dream would motivate his religious supporters and make them believe that Erdogan is indeed the caliph, the leader of all Muslims on earth,” Yilmaz added.
Ibrahim Kalin, the president’s spokesperson, downplayed Erdogan’ s comments in January during a press conference, saying that laying the foundation of a mosque in Cuba is not for the moment on Turkey’s agenda.
