Turkey Analysis: Erdogan's Message of Brotherhood and Business to Arab Neighbours

Speaking at the Turkish-Arab Relations Conference in Kuwait City, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked about the "deep roots" connecting Turks and Arabs, especially links between Turkey and Kuwait. He targeted Israel and presented his country's economic success as a platform for business with his Arab neighbours. 

The background: Turkey and Kuwait established working teams to boost cooperation in the economic, cultural, and political sectors in last October. Before this, in September 2008, Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gulf Cooperation Council --- Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates ---- aimed at forging a strategic partnership in all fields.

Trade between the GCC and Turkey shot up from $1.5 billion in 1999 to $17.5 billion in 2008. In 2008, GCC exports to Turkey rose five-fold over 2007's figure, while the group's imports from Ankara increased a massive 15 times.

Erdogan's speech:

We do not know exactly when the Turks and Arabs met each other for the first time. Strong friendship between the Turks and Arabs was established after the Turks converted to Islam. Our relations are not merely limited to those of the Republic of Turkey and the Ottoman period. Turks and Arabs lived together during the Seljukian era and later. Turks and Arabs jointly defended these lands during the raids of the crusaders.

Throughout my life, I have witnessed efforts that aimed at separating Turks and Arabs.

We are being criticized by certain people when we talk about Baghdad, Kabul, Gaza, Jerusalem and Palestine. The same individuals question Turkey's presence in the EU. No one should be insulted but we determine our own foreign policy. We make our own foreign policy agenda. The Arabs are our brothers and sisters. We are their brothers and sisters. Kuwait happens to be our brother. Regardless of what some say, we will continue to develop brotherhood and cooperation with our Arab brothers and sisters. On one hand, we will continue EU negotiations and, on the other hand, we will not turn our back to regions with which we have been sharing friendship and brotherhood for centuries. Our union is political, economic, commercial and cultural. We are members of the same civilization. We share a common history. We wrote our joint history together. We have no goals in this region other than brotherhood and mutual cooperation.

When Kuwait was invaded (by Iraq), all in Turkey felt the pain. Turkey did everything possible to end the invasion in Kuwait. We considered the pain of the people of Iraq, of the Afghan people and Pakistan as the pain of ourselves. When any organ of a body feels pain, the whole body feels pain.

Likewise, when children in Gaza were massacred, we felt their pain as if our own children went through a massacre. Jerusalem's problem is our problem. Gaza's problem is our problem. We defend justice for all regardless of their language, religion or skin color. I strongly condemn the recent terrorist attack in Egypt and offer condolences to the families of the victims. We do not want to see pain in this region any more. We do not want to see blood, teardrops, wars, or terror in this region any more. Placing the word 'Islam' before 'terror' is disrespect to the Muslims. You can not place Islam next to terror. How can you associate Islam, which translates into "peace", with terror? Islam rejects terror and says that 'killing a single individual implies killing the whole humanity'. Therefore, we have to continue to make efforts that show that we are against terror.

Through solidarity, we can overcome the Palestine problem and end the pain in Iraq and Afghanistan. We do not have to apply at others to help us. Yet, at foremost, we need to establish our own union. We can strengthen stability in Lebanon and prevent terror acts in Egypt. Through solidarity, we can overcome poverty in the region. This is Turkey's goal. We have established high level cooperation mechanisms with certain countries. We have established a cooperation mechanism in the Gulf region. We can establish a better tomorrow together. We do not need others to determine relations between our countries. We can take nice steps together.

We wanted to open a new page with the Middle Eastern countries, as in other parts of the world, and succeeded in doing this. We have opened our hearts to you. We are in an effort to leave aside artificial discussions of the past and a history based on lies. Do not be separated and do not fall into discords.

When we came to power in Turkey eight years ago, Turkey's national income was 230 billion USD. Turkey's national income in 2010 exceeded 740 billion USD. This means that when you set up a goal, you can reach it with determination. Our exports were worth 36 billion USD only several years ago and reached a figure of 114 billion USD in 2010. Inflation in Turkey had been around 30 percent. Inflation in 2010 dropped to 6.4 percent. All of these show that, when you believe in something you are doing and work for it, you reach your goals.