believes Ambassador Ihor DOLHOV
“Can the Turkish experience of European and Euro-Atlantic integration stand Ukraine in good stead? Can Kyiv learn some lessons from it, since Ankara faces quite a few problems in this respect?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way. As I see it, both Turkey’s and Ukraine’s accession to the EU is a matter of time and successful reforms in line with European criteria. Over the long period of Turkey’s cooperation with the EU, the country has undergone both positive and negative experiences. Official Ankara understands our interest and would be glad to exchange information with Ukraine on these issues. The issues of European integration are broached during virtually all bilateral meetings of politicians at all levels. With a view to sharing experiences, we have plans to introduce a mechanism of scheduled consultations at the level of state secretaries of both countries’ Foreign Ministries. Possibly, effective cooperation between our states on Brussels carries even more weight. I mean, in the first place, initiating joint appeals to the EU leadership, in which we could provide arguments for certain issues of particular interest to Ukraine and prospective member states.”
“If Turkey ranks among Ukraine’s top four trade partners, then Ukraine is only 16th among Ankara’s partners. What are the reasons behind it and how can the situation be changed in Kyiv’s favor?”
“Trade and economic relations between Ukraine and Turkey are not that long-standing, as they started only 11 years ago. If in 1992, the total commodity turnover between the two counties amounted to a little more than $120 million, then ever since 1995 it has always exceeded $1 billion, with a record high posted in 1998 ($ 1.263 billion). We hope that this year it will prove to be even bigger, since as of October 2002 the total commodity turnover exceeded $1.2 billion. The bright side is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey not only managed not to sever its ties with Ukrainian companies, but also established new ones. For this very reason, Ankara ranks so high on the list of Ukraine’s trade partners. The fact that Ukraine ranks that low among Turkey’s major trade partners has a number of reasons behind it. The main reason is that, traditionally, a major part of Turkey’s export- import operations (50% of the total volume) are with the EU member states, as Turkey joined its customs union in 1996. And if you look closely at the list of the countries ahead of Ukraine in bilateral trade with the Turkish Republic, you will see that seven of them are EU member states, namely Germany, Italy, Great Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium. If you take all Central and East European states and former Soviet states, Russia is the only one ahead of us. Understandably, Ukraine’s current position cannot possibly satisfy both countries. This process, however, takes some time and calls for additional efforts. Ukraine and Turkey are looking with optimism to the prospects of signing a bilateral free trade agreement. Last year Kyiv even handed over a draft of such a document to Ankara. The stumbling block is that Turkey belongs to the EU customs union. Therefore Brussels also has to give its thumbs-up to the signing of the agreement with Ukraine. Moreover, another positive aspect are intentions declared by the new Turkish government to strengthen economic relations and increase the volume of trade with neighboring states from 10% in the overall volume of this country’s foreign trade to 30%. Without a doubt, these changes will also affect Ukrainian-Turkish trade relations.”
“When will the results of the tender for the supply of tanks, in which Ukraine is a bidder, be known? Do our chances still look good?”
“Currently, the Turkish side is completing the final, so to say, evaluation stage, after which the successful bidder will be announced. And we have reasons to believe that the winner of the tank tender will be known as carly as in 2003. As for Ukraine’s chances to win the tender, they are very high. The T-84 tank has successfully completed all stages of the trials. It produced results on a par with other bidders, world producers of tanks such as the USA, Germany, and France. According to the experts, the performance characteristics of the Ukrainian tank measure up to those of other tanks participating in the trials. Moreover, its chances to win are even more improved owing to the tank’s lower cost as compared to those of the other bidders, the fact that the Ukrainian side is ready to share a wide range of tank manufacturing know-how, will give permission to sell the tanks to third countries, as well as accept the offset scheme of payments proposed by the Turkish side. Therefore, now we can only await the results and hope that they will be positive for Ukraine.
“What is Ukraine in the eyes of an average Turk? Is it only “shuttles” and Ukrainian prostitutes?”
“Regrettably, I am regularly asked questions of this nature, but more often than not by our compatriots. What worries me most is that negative stereotypes have been perpetuated, while the situation is, in fact, changing for the better. For some years now, “shuttles” and the adventures of Ukrainian girls are no longer Ukraine’s calling card in Turkey. This is not to say that these problems do not exist. However, you cannot say that average Turks still form their opinion of Ukraine on the basis of these phenomena. Over the past couple of years, Turkey has seen quite a few performances of our theater companies, works of our artists and craftsmen. Many Ukrainian students pursue their education in Turkey. This year the Gaza University in Ankara introduced optional courses of the Ukrainian language. Regional cooperation is developing at a fast pace, all of which has a positive influence on the whole range of multifarious relations between Ukraine and Turkey.
