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With Trade Dipping, Turkey Works to End Isolation

Dorian Jones

   ISTANBUL - Turkish exporters say they have become a casualty of what
   analysts describe as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's aggressive
   foreign policy. Turkey's relations with its Saudi partners suffer as a
   result of Ankara's push to exert its influence in the Mediterranean and
   in Africa. Exporters say they are being shut out of Middle Eastern
   markets -- prompting Turkey to start changing its approach.

   Turkish companies like industrial boilermaker Erensan are paying a
   heavy price for Turkey's strained relations across the Middle East and
   North Africa, says Erensan's CEO Ali Eren.

   "We shifted, so to speak, from the Middle East," said Eren. "With Saudi
   Arabia also not good relations, Egypt not good relations, so we shifted
   a little bit to the East to Indonesia for example and to Bangladesh
   which turned out to be good markets for us as well. But it's not
   automatically done because we have to work first to get into the
   market."

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