While everyone was excitedly waiting for President Erdoğan’s visit to the US, there was only one little thing that got me thinking: Why was Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM) not invited to join the Turkish delegation when the Chairmen of Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEİK) and the Turkey-U.S. Business Council (TAİK) were a part of the delegation to represent Turkey in the United States?
I find it rather interesting that TIM was not made part of the delegation as the only umbrella organization of Turkish exports, which is the key leg of 100 billion dollar trade set as the target performance by Turkey and the US. TIM must absolutely be selected as one of the delegates to represent Turkey in international arena. After all, how can you carry out trade diplomacy without consulting with people whose job is to export goods?
In an article in NY Times, it was indicated that Turkey-US relations are carried out by enabling the “backdoor diplomacy”. NY Times has also mentioned in the article that tied are being mended between Turkey and the US thanks to the efforts by the leaders of Turkey and the United States, and some of the state officials.
Apparently, NY Times did not have too much difficulty drawing up article convincing enough for the ordinary US citizen when it was made clear that the disagreement between the US President Trump and President Erdoğan is finally resolved. For that matter, the fact that those who were running negative propaganda activities against Turkey did not get what they wanted is based on a simple diplomatic scenario.
“Who would we consult with about export, if not TIM?”
Another important detail that did not go unnoticed either is Turkish Delegation flew to New York in the largest presidential airplane with a large group of delegates. The talks between Turkish officials and their US counterparts are equally as important as the two leaders’ meeting at the White House. I really can’t think of a reason why TIM is not a part of this delegation while there is a large number of officials’ participating in this visit.
The 75-minuteTrump-Erdoğan summit was also attended by some of the US senators. The fact that Turkish delegation provided prompt and direct answers to questions by the US participants helped ease tensions which were initially ignited because of Turkey-related bills in the U.S. Congress.
I also think that 80% of Turkish people showed their support to the Operation Peace Spring resulted in the withdrawal of sanctions bills against Turkey. Diplomatic missions in Turkey must surely be reporting, not only the results of independent surveys, but also of privately conducted research, to their governments. Therefore, providing clear evidence proving that Turkey has a legitimate right to intervene in the region and the fact that Turkish people give full support to the operation would definitely change the course of future events.
Meanwhile, Fed Chair Powell has testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on economic outlook. As Powell kept talking the parity fell further. However, US Dollar may continue to rise due to decline in risk appetite if the Fed cuts rates again before the end of the year.
