Turkey Turns Toward the Arab World

I suppose this was inevitable. As anti-Muslim sentiment rises in Europe and as Islamism becomes more prominent in Turkish culture the nation's political and cultural orientation has begun to shift.

Pakistan's International News reports:

BEIRUT: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for closer ties with Arab countries at an Arab Economic Forum in Beirut on Thursday as he hailed his country’s economic advances.

In an address to bankers and businessmen, he welcomed Turkey’s commercial relations with Arab countries, which has nearly doubled in recent years.

"Turkey’s exchanges with Middle Eastern, Gulf and North African countries have soared by 97 per cent, from seven to 13 billion dollars, between 2002 and 2004," he said. "Economic relations between Turkey and the Arab world must be reinforced."

He insisted on the need to expand commercial agreements that already exist between Turkey and countries such as Morocco, Syria and Algeria to others, among them Jordan and Lebanon.

"Trade between Turkey and Lebanon is only worth $280 million a year, a figure which we could bring up to one billion," he said, as he urged the "dismantling of custom barriers."

He also called on Gulf countries to channel financial surpluses obtained from soaring oil prices into investment projects in neighboring countries.

Read it here.

Can't say I blame them. Europe's relationship with Turkey has always been one-sided and now, after the votes in France and Holland, the anti-Turkish bias is blatant. The chances for Turkey's admission to the EU have just about vanished, so they are looking elsewhere.