Turkey-Austria Political Relations
Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Austria, began about 160 years after the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. Until the end of the Middle Ages, mutual ambassadors were sent for reasons of war, peace treaty, property disputes, alliances, throne, weddings and funerals. The system of the European States which has developed since the end of the 15th century brought with it the necessity of having in-depth knowledge of other states and the necessity of developing diplomatic relations and maintaining permanent representation, considering the importance of taking measures against threats.
Despite intense relations with Austro-Hungarian monarchy founded in 1526 by the Habsburg dynasty, the representation of Austria in Austria was confined to the ad hoc Ambassadors until the late 1700s, when Austria had a permanent diplomatic representation in Istanbul from the middle of the 16th century, Permanent Ambassador Ibrahim Afif Efendi came to Vienna in 1798. The roots of the two sieges of Vienna between 1529 and 1683 created a very old-time interaction.
The historical rivalry between the Ottoman Empire and Austria ended with the Treaty of Ziştovi, signed in 1791 and ending the Ottoman-Austrian War of 1787-1791. Relations with mutual struggle turned into alliance in World War I. The Ottoman and Austrian troops fought together on the front of Galicia in the First World War. The imperial legacy alliance relationship with the Republic of Turkey signed in 1924 between the Republic of Austria “Friendship Treaty” was riveted.
Our economic and commercial relations with Austria are following a steady course. Our bilateral trade volume, which was $ 2 billion 593 million in 2015, decreased by 1% in 2016 to $ 2 billion 567 million. Our exports, which reached $ 1 billion 46 million in 2016, increased by 2% compared to the previous year. Our imports of 1 billion 521 million dollars in 2016 have decreased by 3%.
By November 2017, our bilateral trade with Austria did not change compared to the same period of the previous year (0.1% increase). In this period, exports to Austria increased by 6.4% to 1 billion 26 million dollars, while imports decreased by 4.3% to 1 billion 332 million dollars. export most commonly made from Austria to Turkey 211 million euros with clothing, light commercial vehicles, with 152 million euros, while imports from Austria with 108-million-euro construction machinery, electric motors, has been generators and other machines.
Austrian investments in our country: in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Turkey is the country with the most foreign direct investment in Austria’s investments during the period 2002 to 2016 was 9 billion 754 billion dollars. In this period, Austria ranks fourth among countries directly investing in the country. As of June 2017, the number of companies with Austrian partnership or capital in our country is 874.
By residents in Turkey during the period 2002-2016, the amount of investment made in Austria was realized as 440 million dollars. The number of establishments established by our citizens living in Austria is about 6,400. Turkish entrepreneurs provide about 10,000 people in Austria. January-October 2017 period, from Turkey to Austria 9 million dollars has been invested.
The number of Austrian citizens who visited our country in 2016 decreased by 36% compared to 2015 to 310,946 (2015: 486,044). In the period of January-November 2017, the number of tourists from Austria to my country decreased by 8.5% to 269,233 compared to the same period of previous year.