Saudi Arabia has made the bold decision to ban all Turkish products from the nation as tensions between the two Middle-Eastern states grow. Last year an unofficial embargo was implemented but now the ban will be legally enforced, lending a blow to the Turkish economy which exports large amounts of perishable goods and textiles into the Islamic kingdom.
The embargo has already led to lines of Turkish trucks and freight cargo ships being held in port with nowhere to go.
The political tensions are the result of Saudi Arabia's long held opposition to the 'Muslim Brotherhood'. The Brotherhood are active across a large number of Arab states, and held power for a brief time in Egypt, where the group was created in the early 20th century. Recep Erdogan, the president of Turkey, and his AKP Party are ideologically aligned with the Brotherhood.
In 2017, Saudi Arabia cut ties with its neighbour Qatar, which has also expressed support for the Brotherhood. Qatar itself was being heavily supplied with military hardware from Turkey with which it was forging a strong economic bond. The tension between Turkey and Saudi then reached a new level after the murder, allegedly by Saudi agents, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Istanbul.
It is thought that the Saudi regime will impose heavy fines on anyone breaking the Turkish goods embargo. They have also put measures in place to stop Saudi citizens travelling to Turkey.
A Turkish businessman speaking anonymously to Cumhuriyet stated:
"Our customers got used to Turkish products, they are satisfied. However, they cannot buy our goods anymore. They say send them to us via a third country. Small and medium-sized businesses are very anxious, especially as exports from south-eastern provinces such as Hatay, Gaziantep and Diyarbakır come to a halt."
In recent years Turkey has strongly sought to increase its influence over the Middle-East and North Africa. Last year it was involved in the invasion of Northern Syria and has been accused by France of arming rebel groups in Libya. In the last few weeks, evidence has also emerged that it is sending proxy fighters to Azerbaijan to back up the Azerbaijani state in its long running feud with their neighbour Armenia. Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia have extraordinarily poor human rights records and are regarded as being unfree authoritarian states by academics.
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