Russian business in Turkey: entry difficulties

We can safely say that during the special military operation in Turkey, a significant proportion of domestic entrepreneurs building international activities tried their hand.

Just one figure that clearly illustrates, without exaggeration, the boom taking place today on the business track of Russian-Turkish relations: in the six months of this year, from March to August, more than 700 companies with Russian participation were opened in Turkey. And this process continues.

Does Russian business find what it is looking for in Turkey? The answer is rather yes, otherwise they would not have poured into Turkey.

Have those Russians, who until now had nothing to do with Turkey, understand it as a potential partner and see for themselves all the opportunities that the country offers in the current conditions? There are doubts here.

Turkey, despite its apparent simplicity and openness, is a complex country, with a double, triple and even quadruple bottom. In the mentality of the Turks, the recognition system “friend or foe” clearly works. A stranger is not allowed further than the lobby in a 5-star all-inclusive hotel. They will pour tea and coffee, treat you to kebabs, talk about life, but that’s all.

What I regularly repeat to those Russian entrepreneurs who turn to me for advice on Turkey: in order to become not a stranger (I don’t even tell my own – this is generally “aerobatics”), you need to spend more than one month of time and drink with Turks are not one liter of rich black tea.

I undertake to assert that it is impossible to build a sustainable business with the Turks remotely. You can’t solve issues by raids, you have to stand with both feet in the country, ensuring there for yourself a gradual transformation from “foreign” to “non-alien” or even “ours”.

As for the correct understanding of the full range of opportunities offered by Turkey, I will give below a few theses that I recently voiced at the Moscow business forum for domestic business, where I spoke as an expert on Russian-Turkish relations.

In the foreground, of course, everyone has Turkey’s capabilities as a hub, logistical and financial. But this is too narrow a view of Turkish potential, although it may allow Russian business to meet a number of current operational challenges. For example, for the implementation of mutual settlements with the outside world or for the delivery through Turkey of the necessary equipment and materials as part of the so-called parallel imports.

However, here it is necessary to make a reservation that if everything is more or less clear with payments, then parallel imports are to a large extent a myth. This story only works in two cases.

The first case is “non-numbered”, Western goods that are not unique in their essence. For example, consumer goods, which are perfectly import-substituting and for the sake of which, in principle, it is not worth fencing the garden with purchases through third countries. But if there is a steady demand in Russia, there is no problem, because these goods are mass-produced and no one will track their end user by serial number.

The second case is unique, “numbered” equipment and accessories for it. In this case, the Western supplier will be interested in both the end user of the equipment and where the equipment will be used. Moreover, he will send his representatives to see the place of the future installation.

Bypassing long chains of reasoning, I will say that in order for such equipment to get to Russia, we need not conditional Turkey or another country as an intermediate link, but first of all, the readiness of a Western manufacturer to become part of the supply scheme to Russia is required without asking too many questions.

Otherwise, the notorious parallel import does not work. According to the answers to the very first questions, the corrosive Western supplier will understand everything and will refuse to supply. And even if everything works out once, no one guarantees success in any of the subsequent times. We are talking about an extremely unstable scheme, which can only be justified by the “fire” of the request that has arisen.

In addition to parallel imports, Turkey provides a number of opportunities to replace the West, leaving Russia. However, this is not a measure that should be of interest to “import-substituting” Russia in the long term. Strategically, Turkey may be of interest to our country in terms of the possibility of creating any joint ventures with the Turks on the territory of Russia, Turkey and third countries.

A separate topic is the attraction of Turkish investments to the territory of Russia in the construction of infrastructure, industrial and social. Regarding the latter, for example, tourism, taking into account Turkey’s own supply overload and the objective lack of hospitality facilities in Russia with the growth of internal flows, is a possible point of application for Turkish investments and competencies.

Another promising direction is the study of the experience of Turkish entrepreneurship, small and medium-sized businesses. I have long said that it is not shameful to study, especially since the Turkish business has a lot to offer. But shameful is the snobbery that our individual “businessmen” (I put this kind of public in quotation marks) are trying to show abroad, and absolutely out of the blue.

Entering the Turkish market with its products and services is possible, although extremely difficult. Turkey is a highly competitive country where they have seen and see suppliers from all over the world. It’s hard to surprise anyone here. But if you survive in Turkey, you will survive everywhere.

And in conclusion about politics – a call to the domestic authorities and business from me, as a person who observes Turkey and Russian-Turkish relations from the inside, being a direct participant in the process.

Turkey is now under tremendous pressure from the West. Turkish “crossbow” with the ban on the payment system “Mir” happened because of the hardest American collision. And they, these assaults, do not just continue, but only intensify day by day.

This leads to the idea that Russian business does not need to organize mass events with the Turks in the presence of the press. Moreover, there is no need to politicize your goals and objectives. Do not forget that entrepreneurs get together only and exclusively in order to agree on mutually beneficial cooperation, and not in order to “break through the blockade” and “wipe the nose” of the West.

Although the establishment of cooperation entails the latter, but domestic business definitely does not need to put political goals at the forefront, and even “whistle” about it at every corner. We live in a single information space accessible to everyone with eyes and ears. Including our Western “partners” who are constantly working to stop any Russian attempts to build relations with the outside world, including with Turkey.

Reporting in open sources – the media or social networks – about the next “successes achieved” with the Turks – it’s like sitting in a trench, using open communication channels to report your coordinates with orientation on the ground for “arrival” from the enemy. Moreover, as is usual in domestic practice, often these news are ahead of real deeds: we haven’t really done anything yet, but we are already in a hurry to “report” and put ourselves a “daw”. The news goes into the information space and falls straight on the table of the “Westerners”, and everything falls apart before it even starts.

In general, I hope the business understood me: do your job quietly and alone, without extras. And do not get involved in politics, unfurling the Russian flag to annoy someone there, even if you are doing a good deed for our Motherland. We take out the poster “Chatterbox is a godsend for the enemy!” from the mezzanine, shake off the dust and hang it on the wall as a constant visual reminder of what historical period we all live in and what responsibility everyone has. Not only for the direct participants in the NWO, but also for the business that provides the rear and forges the future Victory – to the same extent.