TODAY’S ZAMAN - President Abdullah Gul is paying an official visit to the Republic of Yemen Jan. 10 and 11 at the invitation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who paid an official visit to Turkey in 2008.
President Gul will hold talks with President Saleh during his visit, as well as receive Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Mujawar and Foreign Minister Dr. Abubakr al-Qirbi. He will deliver a speech at the Turkey-Yemen Business Forum meeting to be held in Sana’a. He will attend the opening ceremony of the Turkish-Yemeni Industrial Vocational High School, which was furnished by Turkey.
Gul’s visit is made all the more important by the fact that he will open the Turkish war cemetery, built in memory of the Turkish soldiers who died during the defense of Yemen during World War I. Although Yemen is an important location in Turkish history, as some 300,000 Turkish soldiers were martyred there, this is the first time a Turkish war cemetery has been built in Yemen and the bilateral relations between the two countries started to improve in 1990s. This is a good example of how Turkey is embracing its old friends. After former Prime Minister Turgut Ozal paid a visit to Yemen on Dec. 20, 1986, a Turkish embassy was opened in Sana’a in 1988. Thus, Turkish-Yemeni relations in many areas including trade, health, tourism and education, seriously improved in the 1990s.
I say Turkey and Yemen are re-embracing each other for a reason. Indeed, Turkish-Yemeni relations were established in the early 1500s. Until the end of the First World War, Ottoman soldiers fought for the independence of South Yemen under the leadership of Imam Yahya. In North Yemen, which became an independent republic under the leadership of Imam Yahya in the wake of the First World War, the Ottoman soldiers and bureaucrats who stayed in the country assumed important positions and made contributions to the establishment of the country. Therefore, it is estimated that 10,000-100,000 Yemenis are of Turkish descent.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will first visit Kuwait and then Qatar on Jan. 9-11, 2011. Erdogan will attend the meetings of the Turkey-Kuwait Business Forum and Turkey-Qatar Business Forum. In Kuwait, Erdogan will meet Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah IV Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Speaker of the National Assembly Jassem Muhammad Al-Kharafi, who was democratically elected, and Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Muhammad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who is the nephew of the emir, and who has been in office for the past five years. He will receive the Outstanding Muslim Personality award, which will be presented to him by the Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad International Award for Charity Committee. In Qatar, Erdogan will hold talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jaber bin Muhammad Al-Thani.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, which has been on Turkey’s agenda since 2005, as well as the establishment of a free trade agreement are among the main agenda items of Erdogan’s Kuwait and Qatar visits. Between 2003 and 2009, Turkish-Kuwaiti relations improved significantly. However, despite many mutual visits by officials following Erdogan’s visit to Kuwait in 2005, trade cooperation between the two countries has been inadequate until early 2011. Turkey’s direct investments in Kuwait have totaled about $600 million until 2010, while they rose to $2 billion in early 2011. The total value of the projects that Turkish contractors have undertaken in Kuwait until Feb. 2010 is $594 million. Compared to other Gulf countries, this figure is quite low. The trade volume between the two countries is also very low. The foreign trade volume between Turkey and Kuwait rose from $395 million in 2009 to $552 million in 2010. The trade volume between Turkey and Qatar is very low, as well. Although it rose from $132 million in 2005 to $375 million in 2009, this figure is negligible given the size of Qatar’s economy. However, there are two developments that may improve the Turkish-Qatari relations in coming years. First, Qatar will host the World Cup in 2022, and Turkish companies will be able to have a greater share in the tenders. Second, there is a Qatar-Iraq-Turkey natural gas pipeline project which is in its infancy and which may extend to the European Union (EU).