Turkish President addresses Parliament; Calls for enhanced Ghana, Turkey relations
The Turkish President, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has called for a further deepening of the relationship between Ghana and Turkey for the mutual benefit of both countries.
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He said there was the need for a much more productive cooperation between the two countries through the strengthening of trade relations and added that businesses in the two countries needed to work towards the prosperity of the peoples of Turkey and Ghana.
Mr Erdoğan stated this in an address to Ghana’s Parliament Tuesday.
His address to the House was the second by a Turkish President, the first was being his immediate predecessor, Mr Abdullah Gul, in 2011.
"We need a much more productive cooperation and we need to encourage companies from both countries to work towards the interests and objectives of our nations and for the prosperity of our people," he said.
Ghana's credentials
Mr Erdoğan described Ghana as "one of the outstanding partners of development" of Turkey in sub-Sahara Africa, which boasted a rich democracy and said his country would stand by Ghana in its effort to strengthen its participatory government.
"We are ready to forge close alliances in the area of culture, defence, agriculture, education, energy and health care," he said.
In pursuit of stronger trade and business ties, the Turkish President said he came along with a 150-member business delegation, which would hold talks with President John Mahama and a group of business people from Ghana.
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Trade
Mr Erdoğan said trade between Ghana and Turkey increased from $41 million in 2003 to $500 million in 2012 but the figure dropped to about $400 million last year.
He told Parliament that the governments of the two countries were determined to raise the figure to $1 billion by 2020.
He noted that there were Turkish companies in the country which were contributing immensely to Ghana's development and called for a much more productive cooperation.
Mr Erdoğan also invited Ghanaian business people to either invest directly in Turkey or partner with Turkish business people.
He said Turkey had an $800 billion economy and records $400 billion in trade volumes annually, but was seeking to expand its economy further and needed to collaborate with all countries in every part of the globe.
He said the Turkish economy was the 17th largest in the world.
Terrorism and global security
The Turkish President referred to the recent terrorist attacks in Mali and Burkina Faso and said it was the responsibility of all nations to take a mutual stance against terrorism.
He described terrorism as the "plague of the modern age" and added that Turkey had been a victim of that "plague" and, as a result, understood the intricacies of the calculated use of violence .
To effectively fight terrorism, Mr Erdoğan said the United Nations needed to adhere to the basic principles it had unanimously established to fight the menace.
But the UN, in the shape and form that it was, he said, with a few members constituting the Security Council, needed to be reformed.
He said the five permanent members of the council were less in population than the non-members and added that they should not be allowed to make decisions on behalf of the whole world..
Mr Erdoğan, therefore, urged Ghana to support efforts to reform the entire organisation with special emphasis on the Security Council.
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He said the UN in its current state had failed and would continue to fail to fight terrorism.
He noted that thousands of refugees fled their nations on a daily basis on rickety boats to the Western world through the mediterranean and aegean seas and drowned while the world watched and took no action.
"When we invite nations to support us deal with the casualties, we don't get much support," he said.
"We cannot allow this to go on" he said, adding that "Turkey will remain a voice for humanity, "
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