ISTANBUL (Reuters) ? Turkey is weighing new transport routes to the Middle East that will bypass Syria where increasing violence has caused a 10 percent drop in Turkish exports to Damascus over the past six weeks, Turkey's Economy Minister said on Thursday.
Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, who was meeting business leaders in Istanbul to discuss developments in Syria, said while exports to Syria had increased in the first nine months of 2011, October and November figures had shown a drop.
Turkey is Syria's largest trading partner with bilateral trade worth $2.5 billion in 2010, and investments by Turkish firms in Syria reaching $260 million, Turkish data shows.
"We are looking at transport routes to the Middle East and Gulf countries via Syria. In this respect we are working to identify alternative routes," Caglayan said at the start of the meeting.
"In the first nine months of 2011 exports to Syria rose 3.7 percent compared to the same period of last year, whilst in October to November they fell 10 percent compared to the same period of last year," he said.
Caglayan said the decline over the last six weeks had been due to firms being put off by risks related to increasing violence and the unstable political situation in Syria.
Turkey's search for new routes bypassing Syria appeared to be more of an attempt make up for that lost trade than a political policy to punish Syria for the violence there.
"We have created a desk to observe developments in Syria. We continue to identify the losses already occurred and future losses in Syria for our investors and businessmen," Caglayan said.
After long courting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey has in recent months stepped up criticism over its neighbor's failure to end an eight-month crackdown on protests and implement promised democratic reforms.
Turkey's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Syria had missed its "last chance" to stop repression and it would pay a "high price" for doing so.
Turkey has said for weeks it is preparing sanctions that will target the Syrian government and not the people. But there have been few details on those sanctions, or if and when they will be imposed.
INVESTMENTS STOPPED
Apart from exporting goods to Syria, Turkey uses its southern neighbor as a transit route to deliver Turkish goods to other countries in the Middle East.
Musfik Yamanturk, CEO of Guris Construction, which has invested more than $50 million in Syria, said plans for future investment had been put on hold.
"We have invested $50-55 million into a cement factory in Syria. We were going to invest further, raising the total amount to 280 million euros, but we have stopped it," he told Reuters after the meeting with Caglayan.
"There is nothing else to do but wait. Our investment in Syria has not been damaged, it's all fine, but everything has stopped. But we will continue investing in Syria in the future," he added.
Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Tuesday that Turkey may review its supplies of electricity to Damascus if it does not change course.
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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