Turkish Trade Minister Bolat stated that mutual trade with Israel has decreased by 33 percent since October 7, and said, “As the government, public institutions, state companies never trade with Israeli companies.”
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat answered questions on TV24.
Speaking about allegations of arms trade with Israel, Bolat said that Turkey has always stood by the Palestinian cause.
Bolat said that since the beginning of Israel’s attack on Gaza, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan have shown and continue to show the necessary outputs and actions on every platform.
“Accusations of trade with Israel do not reflect reality”
Bolat emphasized that Turkey and the government are constantly trying to be squeezed with accusations of trade with Israel, and that some marginal political elements and terrorist organizations are trying to discredit them with fake accounts, and that Israeli intelligence is also trying to do this by leaking some disinformation information. Stating that they have encountered such situations but the allegations do not reflect the truth, Bolat underlined that these were made in order to reduce the votes of the People’s Alliance before the elections in domestic politics.
Referring to the GTIP (Customs Tariff Statistics Position) chapters, Bolat said, “One of them is Chapter 36, explosive substances and its continuation, and the other is the title of arms and ammunition. When this is seen as the main heading in TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute) data, it was made in very small quantities, but when you look at the customs declaration, one of them was gel fuel and lighter gas, and the other was a rifled shotgun part for hunting and sportsmanship and products in the form of harpoons used in fishing. But the way the news is presented on websites linked to the terrorist organization is a way of accusing Turkey of selling arms and ammunition. These are sites that declared war on the state, and it was extremely wrong to believe their news. We investigated, and with the statements we made together with the evidence, we revealed that this was a lie, disinformation and manipulation.”
“Imports with Israel decreased by 43 percent and exports by 30 percent”
Pointing out that Turkey recognizes the state of Palestine, but many countries, especially Israel, do not, Bolat noted that for this reason, Israeli ports and customs have to be used in trade from Turkey and the world to Palestine.
Bolat pointed out that mutual trade with Israel has decreased by 33 percent since October 7 and made the following assessments:
“There has been an average decrease of 33 percent, with a 43 percent decrease in imports and a 30 percent decrease in exports. As the government, public institutions and state companies never trade with Israeli companies. None of the elements of the Turkish Armed Forces have any contact with Israel in terms of cooperation, military training, arms ammunition purchase and sale. Defense industry products require the permission of the Ministry of National Defense. We have researched them too, none of them have permission. Our Ministry of National Defense also made the necessary explanation, we made it as the Ministry of Trade. 3-4 days before the election, we refuted the news of these foreign-based websites, which wanted to present the government in a difficult situation and present it as if they had caught a big news, ‘I wonder if we can make the government lose a few points’.”
Autotranslated from trthaber.com
