Updated on 13 July 2010
Brief on Bangladesh-Turkey bilateral relations
Political relations:
The bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Turkey is historically deep rooted from the age of Bengal. It is based on mutual respect, friendship, trust and reciprocity. It originated since Turkish war of independence (1919-22), when the Muslims of Bengal extended their spontaneous support for Turkey. Till today, it is not forgotten by many Turks. Both countries are secular and have liberal attitude towards governance.
Diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Turkey was established after an official visit by the then President of Bangladesh to Turkey in 1976. Subsequently, two countries opened their Embassies in each other’s capital. Turkish Embassy in Bangladesh was set up in November 1976 while Bangladesh Embassy in Turkey was set up in January 1977. Subsequently, the then President of Bangladesh again visited Turkey in October 1978. Of late, “Kemal Ataturk Avenue” in Dhaka was named after the name of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha, Father of the modern Turkey. Our national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s famous poems on Kemal Pasha are deeply appreciated by the Turkish intellectuals.
Number of bilateral visits at the Head of the State/Ministerial level took place since the establishment of diplomatic relations. The first state visit to Bangladesh by any Turkish President was late President General Mr. Kenan Evren in December 1982. It was an important milestone in our bilateral relations. Late Prime Minister of Turkey Mr. Turgut Ozal also visited Bangladesh in 1986 and 1989. Later on, former President Mr. Suleyman Demirel visited Dhaka in 1997 and 1999. Present President of the Republic of Turkey H.E. Abdullah GUL visited Bangladesh from 12-13 February 2010. After more than a decade, this visit was extremely important for boosting the bilateral political and trade relations between two brotherly nations. H.E. President was accompanied by his wife and more than 100 businessmen from Turkey.
Former President Hussain Mohammed Ershad visited Turkey in 1985 and 1990. Former President Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed visited Turkey in 1999 and former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia visited Turkey in 2006. Since, then no HOS/HOG level visit took place between two countries. Finance and Planning Minister of Bangladesh visited Turkey in May 2005 for ADB Meeting.
Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, Commerce Adviser of the Care-taker Government visited Turkey from 21-29 August 2008.He led Bangladesh delegation at the 77th Izmir International Fair 2008. It was a Minister level visit from Bangladesh to Turkey after long years. This visit was very important at the juncture of rapid growing trade relations between Bangladesh and Turkey. Most importantly, during the visit Turkish Minister expressed their keen interest to unify the strengths of both the countries for competing world market.
Mr. Ramesh Chandra Sen, Hon’ble Minister for Water Resources of Bangladesh visited Istanbul from 19-22 March 2009 to attend the Ministerial session of the 5th World Water Forum held in Istanbul, Turkey. During the visit Hon’ble Minister for Water Resources met Prof. Dr. Veysel EROĞLU Minister for Environment and Forestry of Turkey. The meeting was extremely cordial and both Ministers reflected on bilateral issues of mutual benefits.
Dr. Dipu Moni, MP, Hon’ble Foreign Minister of Bangladesh visited Istanbul from in April 2009 to attend the “Alliance of Civilizations” in Istanbul, Turkey. During the visit Hon’ble Foreign Minister met H.E. Mr. Ali Babacan, the then Foreign Minister (currently Deputy Prime Minister & State Minister for Economy) of the Republic of Turkey. The meeting was extremely cordial and both Ministers reflected on bilateral issues of mutual benefits.
Hon’ble Commerce Minister Muhammad Faruq Khan visited Istanbul from in June 2009 to attend the Turkiye – World Trade Bridge 2009 and &
1st Istanbul Trade Ministers’ Summit in Istanbul, Turkey. During the visit Hon’ble Commerce Minister met HE Mr. Mehmet Zafer Caglayan, State Minister for Foreign Trade & Coordination of Overseas Constructions of the Republic of Turkey. The meeting was extremely cordial and both Ministers reflected on bilateral issues of mutual benefits. This visit mainly focused on prospective bilateral trade, import from Bangladesh, and relocation of textile industries to Bangladesh and investment opportunities in Bangladesh.
Hon’ble Industries Minister Mr. Dilip Barua visited Turkey from 28-30 August 2009.He led Bangladesh delegation at the 78th Izmir International Fair 2009.
Hon’ble Finance Minister Mr. Abul Maal A. Muhith visited Istanbul, Turkey from in October 2009 to attend the “Bank Fund - Annual Meeting” organized by World Bank and IMF. During the visit Hon’ble Foreign Minister met H.E. Mr. Ali Babacan, Deputy Prime Minister and in Charge of State Minister for Economy of Turkey. The meeting was extremely cordial and both Ministers reflected on bilateral issues of mutual benefits.
H.E Md. Zillur Rahman, Hon’ble President of Bangladesh visited Istanbul, Turkey to attend the COMCEC Economic Summit from 7-10 November 2009. During the visit Hon’ble President met H.E. Mr. Abdullah GUL President of the Republic of Turkey. The meeting was extremely cordial and both the Heads of State reflected on the bilateral issues of mutual benefits.
Hon’ble Finance Minister Mr. Abul Maal A. Muhith led Bangladesh delegation at the 3rd Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting held in Ankara, Turkey from 18-19 November 2009. The 3rd JEC meeting between two brotherly countries was successful one. Both sides could conclude an agreed protocol signed by Mr. Abul Maal A. Muhith, Hon’ble Finance Minister of Bangladesh and H.E. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Aydin, Sate Minister of the Republic of Turkey. The understandings and features of the protocol was truly based on deep rooted fraternal relations between two countries. The protocol of understanding dotted new areas for cooperation, promotion of trade & investment, trade diversification, easing banking transactions, recognition of standard organizations and technical cooperation in the fields of ICT and E-Governance.
H.E. Mr. Abdullah GUL accompanied by a large number of Turkish businessmen visited Bangladesh from 12-13 February 2010. The visit was extremely cordial and fruitful. During the visit H.E. Mr. Abdullah GUL met Hon’ble President, Hon’ble Prime Minister, Hon’ble Leader of the Opposition, Hon’ble Foreign Minster and Hon’ble Finance Minister of Bangladesh and reflected on bilateral issues of mutual interests. Turkish President’s visit to Bangladesh after long years was a breakthrough in context of bilateral relations between two brotherly nations; which will strengthen bilateral trade investment between two countries.
The Hon’ble Foreign Minister, Dr. Dipu Moni, MP visited Turkey from 7-9 June 2010 to lead the Bangladesh delegation at the 3rd Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held in Istanbul. During the Summit Turkey took over the Chairmanship from Kazakhstan. During this summit Bangladesh has become observer of this regional forum. Including Bangladesh 8 observer and 22 member states attended the Summit.
During her visit, the Hon’ble Foreign Minister also held a bilateral meeting with Mr. Ahmet Davutoglu, Foreign Minister of Turkey on 8 June 2010. They discussed bilateral and international issues of mutual concern. Referring to the recent visit of the President of Turkey to Bangladesh, Hon’ble Foreign Minister mentioned that it was a breakthrough in context of bilateral political and trade relations. Both Ministers agreed to continue to work for strengthening bilateral ties between Bangladesh and Turkey.
Trade and investment relations:
This Mission is making all out efforts to increase Bangladesh’s export to Turkey as well as overall economic, political and cultural cooperation between the two countries. Bangladesh export to Turkey has been increasing quite satisfactorily since 2007. We made remarkable progress in our export to Turkey during 2008. There is huge scope of increasing trade volume between two countries, if government and political leaderships could be more attentive to explore the possibilities followed by pragmatic steps and interactions.
The present trade volume between Turkey and Bangladesh is US$ 659 Million (2009), whereas Bangladesh’s export to Turkey is more than US$ 523 million (while it was only USD 169 million in 2007). Total trade volume between Bangladesh and Turkey up to November 2010 is US$ 742 million.
In the recent Mission Wise Performance report for July-March 2009-2010, as published by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), it has been reflected that although there was shortcoming in attaining the export target set forth for the stated period, a remarkable increase of more than 25 percentage point has been achieved in export from Bangladesh to Turkey compared to the same period of last year, 2008-2009. This exemplifies the fact that trade and commerce between the two countries are now on a high trajectory. It is mentionable that the balance of trade is also highly in favour of Bangladesh. This year (2010) from the progressive figures, it is assumed that the trade with Turkey will exceed US$ 800 million. The Embassy is trying its utmost to work as a catalyst to sustain and further augmenting this encouraging and positive trend.
There has been steady increase of movement of business people and entrepreneurs from Turkey to Bangladesh since 2007. Embassy is issuing business visas to the Turkish business groups from various sectors. As a result of the bonhomie that ensued due to the visit of Turkish President to Bangladesh in February 2010, there is great interest among the Turkish businessmen to do trade with Bangladesh and more importantly to invest in the garment & knitwear, leather, textile, pharmaceutical products, light engineering, manufacturing, jute & jute products (carpet), education, health, transport, telecommunication and roads & highways development in Bangladesh.
Defence cooperation:
An “Agreed Minute” which was singed on 3 October 1978 during the official visit of the then President of Bangladesh in 1978 entailed promotion of cooperation on Defence matters between Bangladesh and Turkey. Following that an Agreement between the two Governments for “Co-operation on Armed Forces Personal Training and Education” was signed on 10 March 1981. An Agreement on “Cooperation in Military Fields of Training, Technique and Science” was concluded between Bangladesh and Turkey on 2 April 2002. Bangladesh Armed Forces has a ‘Bilateral Training Cooperation Agreement’ with Turkey since 2004. So, far approximately 350 Bangladesh Armed Forces personnel obtained training from Turkey. High level visits of senior military officials/delegates from both countries are taking place regularly.
Military Grant Agreement for 498750 YTL (Four hundred Ninety Eight Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty) has been signed between the Governments of Bangladesh and Turkey on 12 November 2008. This grant will be spent for developing 1 Para Commando Battalion of Bangladesh Army, starting from this year.
Visa regime:
Our Embassy extends easiest and quick visa services to the Turkish business communities and tourists intending to travel to Bangladesh. Business visas have been issued with utmost priority. Moreover, Embassy always encourages the Turkish business people to have direct discussions on different aspects of trade and investment in Bangladesh and encourage them while disseminating trade and investment related information. Bangladesh Embassy issued 1347 visas in 2009 and consular income was US$ 74,122 in 2009.
Bangladeshi expatriates in Turkey:
Bangladesh community in Turkey is very small and mostly consists of students. There has been increasing number of floating Bangladeshis using Turkey as route for Europe. They come here with the assistance of illegal manpower agents. In 2009, approximately 168 Bangladeshis were apprehended by Turkish Police for illegal entry and lack of valid entry documents. Among them, total of 142 repatriated to Bangladesh with the direct or indirect assistance from the Embassy. At present (as of July 2010), there are 30 Bangladeshis detained in different Turkish jail for illegal entry.