Turkey, a neighbor and trading partner of Iran, hopes to benefit economically and diplomatically from the latter's recent deal with some world powers on its nuclear program, which will ease the economic sanctions it faces, analysts say. "Turkey will benefit economically from a deal that, in the short run, diminishes tensions and helps revive trade in the region, and also promises a future boom in the Turkish-Iranian economic relations," Joost lagendijk, a senior advisor at the Istanbul Policy Center, said.
Following Sunday's deal between Iran and permanent members of the United Nation (UN) Security Council plus Germany, Turkish stocks have hit a three-week high while the local currency lira went up against the U.S. dollar.
Turkish officials are also upbeat on the positive windfall from the deal, saying that they intend to make most of it in the next six months. "I hope that Turkey will be able to export its goods to Iran once again, after the easing of the sanctions," said Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, whose portfolio covers exports.
"Turkey is exporting more than 20,000 products to Iran at the moment. I hope we are going to make the most of these next six months," he added.
Caglayan lamented that Turkey lost 6 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period of last year, due to trade embargoes on Iran.
The trade volume between the two countries was 21.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, surging mostly on gold sales to Iran because of financial sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union.
In the first nine months of 2013, the volume was down to 11.9 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease of 58 percent over the same period last year.
Turkey sells gold, gold-plated silver, iron, steel, textile yarn, fabrics, land transportation vehicles, electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances to Iran and buys mostly oil and gas from Iran.
Sunday's agreement can also help Turkey navigate more comfortably with Iran on gas and oil deals, which are under sanctions by the UN, the United States and the EU.
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Ankara can increase oil imports from Iran after the sanctions are eased.
"We have reduced our imports to around 105,000 barrels per day (bpd) due to the sanctions. Once these sanctions are no longer in effect, I believe the amount we buy will increase," he noted.
Cemil Ertem, a Turkish economist, believes the reduction in the level of risk perceived by the global community is important, saying that it will have a positive effect on the tradable sectors in the stock markets and the expectations that there would be a recovery from the crisis.
"This positive effect will be more intense in southern Europe and Turkey," he said.
The business community in Turkey is also cheerful for the breakthrough between the world powers and Iran.
"Even though the nuclear deal with Iran is an interim agreement, it is about a renewal of confidence between the West and Iran," Turkish-Iranian Business Council Vice President Bilgin Aygul said.
In addition to the economic benefits Turkey may gain from the deal, analysts also point out that this would give clout to Turkey 's diplomacy that has been advocating the normalization of Iran's relations with the West.
Turkey and Brazil convinced Iran to sign a uranium swap deal in 2010 as a confidence-building measure toward the settlement of the nuclear dispute, but the deal fell through when the U.S.-led bloc slapped another round of sanctions on Iran at the UN Security Council.
The easing of the sanctions would relieve the pressure on Turkey, Sami Kohen, a foreign policy analyst, said, stressing that the Turkish government may find a new balance in the Middle East where it has trouble in maintaining relationships with some countries.
Turkey is at odds with its southern neighbor Syria because of Ankara's support for the uprising against President Bashar al- Assad. It has also been repairing its chilly ties with Iraq in recent weeks. "This (deal) would help Turkey to develop its relations with Iran more comfortably. They (Turkish officials) have already established close ties with Iranian President Hasan Rohani," Kohen said.
Source: Xinhua
