Turkey's Commercial & Logistics position In Asia, Europe And Africa

Overview

Turkey, a rustic with a singular geographical location, partly submerged in Asia and a part of Europe, has long been a barrier and bridge between the 2 ancient continents.
Turkey is situated at the crossroads of the Balkans, Caucasus, Near East, and eastern Mediterranean. it's among the larger countries of the region in terms of territory and population, and its area is bigger than that of any country. Nearly most of the country is found in Asia, comprising the oblong peninsula of Asia Minor—also referred to as Anatolia—and, within the east, a part of a mountainous region. the rest —Turkish Thrace ”Trakya” —lies within the extreme southeastern a part of Europe, a little remnant of an empire that after extended over much of the Balkans.

The country includes a north-south extent that ranges from about 480 to 640 km, and it stretches about 1,600 km from west to east. Turkey is bounded on the north by the Euxine Sea, on the southwest and west by the sea and also the sea on the northeast by Georgia. it's also surrounded directly by 7 countries in Asia and Europe.

Of a complete boundary length of some 6,440 km, about three-fourths is maritime, including coastlines along the Black Sea, the Aegean, and also the Mediterranean, similarly because the narrows that link the Black and Aegean seas. These narrows—which include the Bosporus, the ocean of Marmara, and also the Dardanelles—are known collectively because the Turkish straits; Turkey’s control of the straits, the sole outlet from the Euxine Sea, has been a significant think about its relations with other states.

By examining the map of the three ancient continents, surrounding Turkey, Asia, Europe and Africa, Turkey's position is nearly at center if the three continents. in step with 2018 statistics, lives on this continents in billions, 4.45, 0.75, and 1.3, respectively. These figures represents 85% of the world's population.

 

A Historical Background Reading

Although big countries don't change their strategies easily, these strategies aren't made inspirationally and freaks. And don't change by changing the rule or the autumn of a president or party or a king. However, the top of the conflict between the us and therefore the country was a clincher in re-reading the role of States, especially when extrapolating the longer term and redesigning their strategies to accommodate Countries developments, and developments within the new world order. the twin pile presence on the assemblage, which was the most engine for the formulation of country strategies, ended by the top of the conflict. Most of the countries littered with this conflict have begun to redraw their strategies with a view to rearranging their papers within the regional and international environments.

During the conflict, Turkey voluntarily chose to stay at the outer limit of the encircling territories with none a part of it and thus with none specific strategic role. After the autumn of the Ottoman Caliphate, the Turkish Republic surrendered itself to a historical surgery within the brain lobes, making it three quarters of a century of hiding and hiding from its Ottoman past, during which the Turks ruled an enormous empire.

After the top of the conflict, Turkey, for several geographical and historical reasons, was all told|one amongst|one in every of} the foremost prominent countries that redrafted its foreign policies so as to attain the geostrategic and geopolitical depth it lacked within the course of the war and provides it positive freedom of movement in all directions, especially after the demise of the Soviet threat. With the emergence of a brand new world order, Turkey, like all other countries, had to decide on its location and adopt a replacement strategy that suited new strategic and geopolitical changes.

At the guts of this new strategy - which began to emerge after the Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002 - the Turks have removed their dress of voluntary isolation from their geographical region surroundings and replaced their illusions of joining the West and searching eastward at history, customs and customary religion. the middle point within the vast Eurasian acreage, the link between the ends. The Arab world was the primary region during which Turkey sought to implement its new policy for several economic, political and geopolitical considerations.

 

Turkey as an advertisement & Logistic Center for the Three Continents

As the "East-West Link" for thousands of years, Turkey encompasses a unique location at the geographic heart where travel, tourism and trade intersect. because of the abundant opportunities and therefore the many investment elements, and thru the need of those ambitious and cohesive peoples and therefore the determination of their promising adolescents, within which the people of 25 stands at the speed of 42%, the Turkish state moves fast and steadily towards a brand new era of modernity and progress. Turkey's investments and trade exchanges on the Black Continent have reached record proportions. the subsequent statistics have clear indications of their activities:

Turkey could be a leading trading hub serving the countries of the center East, Africa and South Asia, and enjoys a various and highly competitive economy worldwide. particularly, Istanbul plays a pivotal role as a hub for regional trade, logistics and tourism.

With Turkey's unique location, which makes it a bridge between the 2 continents and provides access to six.5 billion customers in Europe, Asia, and Africa, it's one amongst the foremost dynamic and important economic poles within the geographical area, geographical region and Turkey.

Turkey is that the 16th largest economy within the world and includes a population of about 80 million. it's characterized by youth, vitality, quality of education, further as communication and multiculturalism. 42% are under the age of 25.

This enormous opportunity within the local market includes 48.6 million broadband subscribers, 73.6 million mobile subscribers and 58 million mastercard users in 2015. additionally, the geographical location of quite 190 million passengers On board the airline in 2015. it's noteworthy that Turkey has entered into a union agreement with the ecu Union since 1996, and in 2015, won the title of second largest reformer among the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in terms of restrictions on foreign direct investment for the year (1997) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Direct prophet, indicator of regulation 1997-2015).

From the context of the previous review, we conclude that Turkey has the advantage of all the weather that may, with the looks of 2023, become the link between the East, the North and therefore the South as a trade and logistic center for the three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa. Next we'll stop at a number of the foremost important stations that confirm the importance of Turkey as a billboard and logistic center between three old continents.

 

China Silk Road & the long run of Turkish Land Transport Corridors

For many years, the Turkish ports on the Black, the Mediterranean and also the Aegean Seas, and also the railway line across its territory, were the sole alternative to the ocean route from Asia to Europe via the Bosporus Strait. However, the development of transit corridors passing through Kazakhstan changed true. within the coming years, China trade route Initiative, a brand new logistics map of Eurasia, can be formed. the foremost important question is whether or not Turkey will have an area on this map.

For quite a century, Russia has used and benefited from its monopolistic position in transcontinental transport. particularly, within the 20th century, the Siberian railway was the trade route linking East and West. However, the employment of enclose useless business like transport, was for an extended time considered humiliating, and so failed to get the transit potential of adequate attention and development required. the employment of ports and railways of the region was limited to the transport of raw materials and native consumption goods.

There has been talk for a protracted time that Russia's monopoly of transcontinental transport routes will end sooner or later. the foremost famous alternative for an extended time, the project of Traceka, which assumed the transport of products across western China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, then through the lake, South Caucasus and Turkey. However, this project didn't pose a heavy threat to the Siberian Railway. the explanations that don't yet allow the establishment of an alternate to the Russian methods, political (instability and problems of relations between States within the region), and purely geographical. On the way of all lines stands the Caspian. Perhaps this is often why Russia has not taken threats seriously, competitive advantage has not collapsed, and Russian rail remains one among the slowest and costliest within the world.

The most important event for the tip of 2015 has been media reports on the opening of a transit corridor from China via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia with plans to expand it to Turkey then to Europe. Any projects associated with China are now compulsorily linked to Silk Road Initiative. Therefore, the media concluded that "the new trade route won't labor under Russia." So there's another path taken by China in what's called the belt and road initiative as another to ending the previous controversy.

Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious effort to boost regional cooperation and connectivity on a continental scale. The initiative aims to strengthen infrastructure, trade and investment links between China and about 65 other countries, which together account for quite 30 percent of world GDP, 62 percent of the population and 75 percent of known energy reserves. BRI consists mainly of the trade route Economic Belt, which connects China to Central and South Asia, then Europe, and therefore the New trade route linking China to South East Asia, the Gulf States, North Africa and Europe. Six other economic corridors are identified to attach other countries with the belt and also the road. The scope of the initiative continues to be shaped - and more recently, the initiative has been interpreted as hospitable all countries furthermore on international and regional organizations.

The Belt and Road Initiative can transform the economic environment during which economies within the region operate. Regional cooperation on the reform of recent transport infrastructure and policy improvement can significantly reduce trade costs and improve connectivity, resulting in increased cross-border trade and investment and improved growth within the region. for instance, shipping times from China to Central Europe take about 30 days, with most of the products traveling by sea. The duration of shipping by train to 16 days, but because of this infrastructure, the value is way greater. Improving the capacity and network of railway infrastructure can therefore seriously change the common time period. While rail transport are costlier than the shipping of those routes, the reduction of your time and price will have important consequences for a few goods that affect the selection of method and therefore the overall flow of international trade.

 

Turkey had early realized the problem of the infrastructure of the belt and road infrastructure and had taken its interest in its strategic plans, both along the geographic region and within the parts connecting the 2 continents. the subsequent are a number of the foremost important strategic projects of the Turkish State to reflect the preparations for launching the new trade route project particularly, or to secure a network of international routes for his or her land corridors:

• The Turkish Minister of Transport reported that infrastructure projects, to boost the standard of transport over the past 14 years, exceeded the overall value of 100 billion dollars
• The new bridge project on the Strait of Chunak Qala, which separates the Aegean Sea and Marmara in western Turkey
• The governments of Turkey and China signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the G-20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, on the Silk Road project and therefore the promotion of trade and maritime relations between the 2 countries, additionally to a memorandum of understanding on the "Central Corridor" initiative, Elements of the restoration project of the historic Silk Road
• Railway projects like Marmarai, which connects the 2 continents of Europe and Asia in Turkey, opened in 2013, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars line opened in June 2018 and also the Turkish Adran-Kars line, which is being negotiated in cooperation with China, Large and important a part of the new Silk Road
• The Eurasia project, a three-story ground pass-way crossing the Bosphorus, are going to be open before the tip of this year, eight months before the scheduled date for its opening
• The opening of the Oveit tunnel, which connects the states of Riza (northeast) and Erzurum (east) of Turkey to traffic, in the end preventive measures are elemenated.
• The tunnel is one amongst the foremost important lanes connecting the sea and eastern Anatolia regions. The tunnel will facilitate traffic from the sea, to Nakhichevan (territory of Azerbaijan), Iran, Georgia and Armenia.

Turkish air Corridors

 

Since the announcement of the event of the new Istanbul airport in June 2013, the talk about the new huge center of 10.2 billion euros has attracted the air transportation sector. With the inspiration of the new Istanbul airport, the corporate behind the exciting new industry portal, “IGA Havalemann Islimtimes I”, started one amongst the foremost important infrastructure projects ever inbuilt Turkey - a project which will drive the state to the middle of the worldwide aviation industry.

Dubai airport is also the busiest airport in terms of the quantity of passengers using it. the quantity of passengers passing through the airport last year was 88 million passengers. But the vengeance of the strategic importance of Istanbul's new strategic airport within the presence of rival airports within the neighborhood and competition may pose a true challenge to them.

First: Turkey could be a huge and densely populated country compared therewith country with its three companies, which occupy an oversized number of aircraft and where traffic is most congested. Turkey therefore has an urgent demand at domestic level, which has increased 12 times over the last 15 years because of liberalization of the aviation sector

Second: Turkish Airlines flies to more destinations compared with three companies of that country, which supplies it an operating characteristics with a positive dimension, to the efficiency of the corporate and thus a high list of income.

Third: Istanbul could be a vibrant and flourishing historical and tourist city on many levels. it's a really attractive terminal for the traveler, which is predicted to become a catalyst for stopping passengers.

Fourth: the opening of the primary phase of the airport will mark the start of a brand new era in Turkey's history. For the primary time, it'll bridge the 2 continents in its heart and deliver flights to over 350 destinations via a long-range road network connecting the globe. Eventually, 200 million passengers a year will use this giant center.

Fifth: The airport has the most effective shopping environment within the world. Under the large contract signed with, “Unifree DutyFree” will create at Istanbul's new airport, the most important free shopping area ever exits complex anywhere within the world in a very 53,000 m2, offering an unparalleled business experience for its customers. 25-year fee waiver, the beneficiary company will reflect this approach, invest 120 million Euros in its business activities, and collect quite 400 domestic and foreign luxury brands under the roof.

Last: but not least, given the importance of Turkey's strategic location as a link between the three continents between the Eastern industrial producer and also the Western and Southern consumers, Istanbul Airport are going to be able to highlight its logistical capabilities, its three runways and its vast areas with important cargo services.

 

Turkish Shipping Corridors

Ancient Corridors: The Bosporus Strait is found in northern Turkey, where it reaches the Euxine Sea and also the Marmara Sea about 30 km long and about 1 km wide. While the Dardanelles is found within the south-west of Turkey, where it links between the ocean of ​​Marmara and also the Mediterranean through the sea length 60 km and width of 1-6 km.

The two straits became more important after the invention and extraction of oil from the Caspian, where the straits form the sole outlet for oil by ship. it's known that the value of transporting oil by pipeline ranges from 1-2 dollars, while the value of transporting a barrel by ship is simply 20 cents. Including a minimum of 6,000 oil tankers.

Modern Corridor: The new channel is one amongst the mega projects that accompanied the emergence of Turkey's "Vision 2023" as a medium-term plan, which aims to occupy a footing among the ten most powerful countries within the world by the centennial of the founding of the fashionable Turkish Republic. The official Turkish reports confirm that the parallel channel will generate Turkey about $ 8 billion a year, contributing to the compensation of 10 billion dollars bereft of them by the reduced traffic rates for ships crossing the Bosphorus, in keeping with the Montreux Convention, which occurred within the Swiss city in 1936 to manage navigation within the straits and corridors of Turkish water. per the info, the revenues of the new canal will cover the value of the $ 15 billion project in exactly two years and can transform the historic Bosphorus into a secondary route for maritime trade compared to the new channel that may attract ships and tankers.
The most significant value of the channel stems from its non-compliance with the Montreux Convention, allowing Turkey to gather $ 5.5 per ton of cargo and transshipment of ships it crosses daily.

Information indicates that, the channel connecting the Salifri coast of the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea coast of Karakwe will give Turkey a really competitive advantage within the international transport trade, which accounts for quite 75% trans seas.

Turkish Energy Transmission Corridors

With its strategic geographical location, Turkey is one in every of the foremost important fossil fuel and oil transport corridors produced by Russia and also the countries of the center East and Central Asia, to the ecu continent and therefore the Western world. per the report, the strategic importance of Turkey during this regard is increasing day by day thanks to the increasing need of Western countries for these articles, where the transfer of fossil fuel and oil through Turkish territory, large amounts for Western countries.

The sea straits, which are under the control of Turkey, is one in every of the foremost important sea lanes within the world and most employed by transport vessels, and therefore the average amount of oil and gas, which was transported through the straits of Turkey in 2015, reached 2 million barrels per day.

Said that the Turkish economy has achieved significant growth over the past ten years. This growth necessitated the consumption of larger quantities of oil and fossil fuel. He noticed that Turkey has 312 million barrels of oil reserves, especially within the southern and eastern regions of the country.

The report added that Turkey's production of fossil oil during the year 2015, reached 62 thousand barrels per day, akin to 7 percent of its daily consumption.

The role of the port of Ceyhan within the southern state of Adana and its importance within the export of oil east to west, he explained that 650 thousand barrels of Azerbaijani oil, and quite 400 thousand barrels of Iraqi oil, was exported daily to Western countries through the port mentioned during the year 2015.