Erdogan Visits Croatia to Bolster Turkey's EU Role

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting Croatia for the first time this week, aiming to firm up Turkey's position in the EU - and raising hopes of trade spin-offs for Turkish exporters.

Erdogan will visit Zagreb on Tuesday and Wednesday, meeting Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic.

He will also attend events marking the 100th anniversary of the formal recognition of the Islamic faith in the Austro-Hungarian Empire of which Croatia was then part.

Retired university professor and political analyst, Zarko Puhovski, says the visit will be used also to show that "Croatia has a second option" to the EU.

"Turkey always acts as if it plays a major role in Europe and that Europe needs them. Therefore, both of them [Croatia and Turkey] have tactical reasons for such a visit," he told BIRN.

Puhovski said the visit was likely to improve Turkey's position. It already plays a major role in Europe, managing the flow of migrants to the continent from the war zones of the Middle East.

What has attracted most attention in Croatia is that Erdogan will reportedly bring six ministers and 90 businessmen with him, some of them senior officials in leading Turkish companies who will take part in an economic forum with some 150 Croatian counterparts.

Croatia's National Bank says Turkey has invested only 212 million euros in Croatia since 1993, or only one per cent of all foreign investments in Croatian economy.

Croatia exported goods worth 104.4 million euros to Turkey in 2015, only 1 per cent of all exports, while Croatia imported from Turkey goods worth 244.4 million euros, also around 1 per cent of total imports.

Damir Novotny, an economic export, told BIRN that while Turkey is...