The Turkish-Bulgarian Business and Friendship Association, a business lobby, said the visit was key for Turkey’s prospects.
«Bulgaria is Turkey’s door opening to Europe,» the association’s chairman, Ali Kahraman, said in Istanbul. «Our exports to Bulgaria are increasing day by day» he said, noting a construction boom in Bulgaria that accounted for the bulk of Turkish business in the country.
Erdogan met with his Bulgarian counterpart, Sergei Stanishev, and planned meetings with President Georgi Parvanov and Parliament Speaker Georgi Pirinski.
Bulgaria and Turkey are also partners in the multinational gas project Nabucco, which will carry natural gas from the Russia’s Caspian Sea coast to Western Europe, linking also to Iran, Azerbaijan, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria.
Turkey has close ethnic, cultural and historic bonds with Balkan nations, which were ruled for centuries by the Ottoman Empire. Apart from trade ties, Turkish military has been training the military officers of Albania and Bosnia.
Erdogan visited Bosnia and Albania earlier this week to urge more Turkish investment in those countries both of which see Turkey as a main economic partner.
Annual trade with Bosnia last year was US$272 million (¤173 million) US$210 million (¤135 million) in goods imported to Bosnia from Turkey. Trade with Albania was US$318 million (¤204 million).
While in Bulgaria, Erdogan planned to visit the northeastern city of Targovishte and the southern Kardzhali both populated mostly by ethnic Turks, who make up 10 percent of Bulgaria’s 7.6 million population.
