Erdogan Iscan, Ambassador of Turkey to Ukraine:
We are ready to abolish visas for Ukrainian citizens
Turkish investments come via the third countries

Turkey is one of leading economic partners of Ukraine. At what expense the countries have managed to increase the bilateral trade?

Our economic relations reflect perfect political dialogue existing between Turkey and Ukraine. They steadily improve and increase every year. In 2006 our bilateral trade volume exceeded 4 billion Dollars. I would like to draw your attention that five years ago bilateral trade volume was only 1 billion Dollars.
Of the present 4 billions, 3 billions -exports from Ukraine to Turkey- and 1 billion -Turkey is exporting to Ukraine-. Such disparity is due to the fact that Ukraine is mainly exporting heavy industrial products, while Turkey  is exporting light industrial products. As a result, Turkey became the second largest export market for Ukraine after the RF.

Your colleague, Ambassador of Poland to Ukraine has recently stated in his interview to the BUSINESS that increase of the trade volume is very good, but the future belongs to investments.

We are pleased to see improvements in the investment climate in Ukraine, but it is still far from being favourable. Regarding the Turkish investments in Ukraine, we should view them in two aspects; direct investments and construction projects. According to statistics, as of today, direct investments of Turkey in Ukraine has reached the level of 200 million Dollars.
But this figure does not reflect the reality, as in our globalised world, due to high taxes, investments sometimes come through the third countries. The figure of total investment is 200 million Dollars. But if we take the cell phone company «Turkcell» (trade mark Life:)), only its investment has so far reached the total of 700 million Dollars. This investment came to Ukraine through the Netherlands. It is indicated in statistics among the Dutch investments. Or, for instance, another big Turkish company, Ulker has built a big factory manufacturing biscuits in the suburbs of Kyiv. But this investment formally came to Ukraine through the UK. Thus, in view of my own experience and observations, I can say that Turkish capital investments have so far reached about 1 billion Dollars. Plus construction projects -it is about 1 billion Dollars. When you travel in Ukraine, you will see housing, hotel or road construction works, many of them are built by Turkish companies. I can say that out of 1 billion Dollars, about a half has already been completed, the other half is still under construction.
On the other hand, we do not have clear information regarding the Ukrainian investments in Turkey. According to the official data, they do not exceed 100 thousand Dollars. As a result Ukraine leads in exports and Turkey in investments. But it is very important that both directions are developing despite the fact that conditions in Ukraine remain unfavourable.

What are Turkish businessmen’s complaints?

This question has two aspects.
The first aspect relates to the general problems which are common for all businessmen including the Turkish ones. All foreign businessmen in Ukraine complain about the imperfection of legal infrastructure, insufficient financial and legal guaranties as well as insecure conditions for conducting business. According to researches made by relevant reliable organisations -World Bank, OECD etc.-, in order to start business in Ukraine one has to spend much longer time than in any other Eastern or Central European country. Besides, it is necessary to get much higher number of licenses in order to establish business. And even after the company is registered, due to the deficiencies in laws, which should protect it, business continues to suffer. The Ukrainian Government and all the relevant institutions are aware of this problem. They admit that legislation and implementation are to be improved.
In addition to all these problems Turkish businessmen suffer from visa problems. It is very difficult to get Ukrainian visa for a Turkish businessman and also to enter Ukraine. Geographical situation and promising perspectives between Turkey and Ukraine require establishing visa-free regime in the future. On our side, we are ready to abolish visas for Ukrainian citizens. But we understand that Ukraine will need more time to reach this point. Thus, we proposed to conclude a Visa Agreement which will envisage facilitation of issuing visas to Turkish citizens, particularly to those who intend to make investments. In October we initiated negotiations on concluding such a visa agreement.

What does the Ukrainian MFA promise? Is the Government ready to address your proposals?

The MFA agreed to start negotiations on facilitation of visa regime, and now the relevant Ukrainian authorities are considering the draft agreement. As a matter of fact, we want from Ukraine what Ukraine wants from the European Union.

We are interested in providing assistance to Crimean Tatars

Is it true that major Turkish investments are made in Crimea?

This not a true assertion, as Turkish investments in Crimea are as much as in any other region of Ukraine. According to my own observations, there are even less Turkish investments in Crimea. In this context one has to note that we have a governmental agency in Crimea, Turkish Agency for International Cooperation (TIKA). The purpose of its presence in Crimea is to render assistance aimed at social and economic reintegration of Crimean Tatars, as we have ethnic and cultural connections with Crimean Tatars and we are interested in helping them. Presence and activities of the Agency in Crimea are regulated by the bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Turkey which was signed in 2002. The Turkish Government will continue to attach priority to work in full cooperation with the Ukrainian Government in respect of the projects in Crimea. In most projects, the UNDP is also involved as a partner.

On what programmes does this Agency work? By the way, its activities are treated very negatively by the pro-Russian forces in Crimea.  One pro-Russian politician Leonid Grach has recently stated that “as soon as the Russian Fleet abandons Sevastopol, Crimea will become Turkish”.

As the Turkish Ambassador, I am not going to be involved in polemics with a Ukrainian politician. I can only say that TIKA implements only those projects which are approved by the Ukrainian Government; these are mainly social-economic and cultural projects like construction of housing, restoration of schools and libraries, financing of agricultural projects. By the way, number of Crimean Tatars residing in Turkey is much higher that those who live in Ukraine.

Who is financing TIKA?

TIKA is a governmental Turkish agency and the money is allocated by the Turkish Government. TIKA proposes its projects; they are approved by the Ukrainian Government, and only then TIKA is implementing them at its own expense. So far, the total value of the projects undertaken by TIKA is around 15 million Dollars.

According to estimates by experts, Turkish economy has lost almost 0.5 billion Dollars. Besides, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline passes through the areas where Kurds reside. And this is a tempting goal for terrorists. In your opinion, can the conflict with the PKK be solved by diplomatic means?

Turkey has no conflict with its Kurdish citizens. The problem is that the separatist terrorist organisation PKK is conducting activities aimed at disrupting the territorial integrity of Turkey.
It is a terrorist organisation and this is a fact acknowledged by the USA, EU and other countries. PKK started its activities in the 1980s and it continued its vicious terrorism till the late 1990s which cost 30 thousand human lives to Turkey.

In the European press, they even discuss the possibility of establishing united Kurdish state which could partially consist of territories of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Are these plans realistic in principle?

These are dreams that will never come true. We have borders which are recognised by the international community. It is true that Kurds live in these countries but in no country they live separately from other nationalities. Majority of the Kurdish population live in the Western parts of Turkey, in the regions of Izmir and Istanbul and not in the southeastern part of Turkey.
By the way, in July we had parliamentary elections and in the southeastern region of Turkey, parties which are against the PKK attempts to disrupt the territorial integrity of Turkey, collected over 90 percent of the votes. And out of 340 seats in the parliament which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) won, 74 mandates belong to the Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin. But unfortunately the progress reached in the field of democracy does not necessarily prevent terrorist groups from continuing their activities.
 
Meanwhile, after the start of the military operation in the territory of northern Iraq against the PKK, anti-Turkish mood appeared in the European Union.

In general it did not cause anti-Turkish mood at the governmental level in the EU countries.  Our partners and allies (for instance, the USA) understand our position. We made it very clear to our partners in Europe and in the world that we will respect the territorial integrity of Iraq. And till the last moment we will continue to resort to diplomatic means to settle this conflict and therefore we held negotiations with the Iraqi Government and the Coalition Forces. Unless the territorial integrity of Turkey is respected, the Turkish Government is ready to carry out operations in order to prevent attempts of terrorists to penetrate into our territory, attack and return. Turkey will exercise its legitimate right in line with the international law.

Turkey has been aspiring to join EU for more than 50 years (starting point is joining NATO in 1952). Is your society not disappointed? Is it still a major objective for you?

Yes, it remains our priority. Second, in general we are not disappointed with the exception of the recent tendencies which appeared in the EU, for instance approach by the French President Sarkozy. We understand that in order to be admitted to the EU we shall comply with the relevant standards. The history of relations between Turkey and the EU has a long background, but the candidate status was given to Turkey in 1999 and after numerous structural reforms realised in our country, the EU decided in 2004 to start accession negotiations with Turkey.  Actually we are a country negotiating with the EU for full membership. Countries which aspire EU membership shall comply with its political and economic requirements. And secondly, the EU must have the will to admit those countries. Regardless of the final result, we are going to continue reforms in our country. We would advice that Ukraine does the same way in order to be ready for joining the EU. And then it is up to the EU whether it is ready to admit Turkey or Ukraine.