Turkish private sector gears up for Iran push
An end to international sanctions against Iran raises strong commercial prospects for Turkish companies on the Iranian market.
The nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers has put the spotlight on a giant Iranian market, long isolated from the global economy. Under international sanctions, Iran has been shut off from the global financial system since 2012, with $130 billion of Iranian Central Bank assets frozen in foreign banks. The July 14 deal has now raised the prospect of those assets being unlocked, which would mean a giant flow of cash into the Iranian economy.
The lifting of sanctions on Iran, the neighbor with which Turkey shares its second-longest border after Syria, has generated great excitement among Turkish companies, especially those in the industry, commerce, tourism and construction sectors.
Since the Eid al-Fitr holiday in mid-July, Turkey has experienced a virtual boom in Iranian tourists at a time when its vital tourism sector is going through difficult times. Amid a string of terrorist attacks, including the Islamic State’s (IS) massive suicide bombing in Suruc on July 20, nine Western governments, among them Germany and Russia, which provide the two largest groups of foreign holiday-makers in Turkey, have warned their citizens not to travel to Turkey or, if they do, to be aware of security risks.
During the Eid al-Fitr holiday, Iranians flocked to Turkey’s eastern border city of Van. Local stores and shopping malls, which had closed for the holiday, reopened. Scores of Iranians left their cars at the Van airport’s parking lot and boarded planes to Istanbul.
