Saudi Arabia punishes Turkey… popular campaign to boycott Turkish products

The call to boycott Turkish products spread very quickly, to become a headline for Saudis' presence on social media, then the matter turned to a fact when Saudi local officials pushed in the commerce and industry sections citizens to boycott products arriving from Turkey or that have a mark shows it was made in Turkey, which angered businessmen in Turkey and become a pressing card on the president President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.    

Ajlan Al-Ajlan, head of Saudi Commerce Council's administration in Riyadh launched " the 3 Nos" at the face of the Turkish Economy, calling not to deal with Turks for its offense to the Saudi leadership.   

He tweeted:" No exploitation, No exportation, No tourism… We, citizens and businessmen, won't deal with whatever is Turkish.

According to al-Arab newspaper, observers believe that the Turkish president cannot do anything regarding the Saudi position, for the matter looks as a popular and simultaneous boycott campaign for which the Saudi leadership is blameless, the Turks cannot launch a media campaign like that of Jamal Khashoqgi, or look for mediations to intervene, and this course would help Saudi Arabia to avoid dispute the corresponded Qatar blockade decision.   

Silence makes Erdogan in a difficult position, because in Turkey he is being blamed for a new crisis that would increase the ailing Turkish economy embarrassment, and would accumulated difficulties for Turkish businessmen who gained a lot after openness on the Gulf in the recent years.

What increases the intensity of the campaign is that the boycott doesn't include only products imported by Turkish companies to Saudi Arabia, but has widened to cover imports by international companies produced in Turkey, which increases losses of inflicting international companies that exploit in the country and pushes them to look for other countries to exploit therein.

A British report unveiled the harms inflicting the Turkish economy due to intensity of the unofficial Saudi blockade of Turkish products, pointing out to the retail merchants in the international fashions trade who suffered too as a result of this.  

The British Financial Times newspaper clarified that Spanish Company Mango is looking for imports instead of Ankara because it's goods are made in Turkey and defined for competition and display between Ankara and Riyadh.     

Companies look at the problems as a Saudi attempt and its ally, the UAE, to punish Ankara for its interferences that destabilize the Arab world.

This is not the first call to boycott Turkish products, for before Ajlan the Saudi Prince Abdullah All Saud called on his citizens to boycott Turkish products.  

Turkey's relationship with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two biggest economies in the Middle East, has become more intense ever, where Riyadh and Abu Dhabi accuse Erdogan of interfering in the Arab issues and backing Islamic groups, besides interfering in Libya and supporting armed factions. 

L-A

ANHA