May and Erdogan shake on trade deal despite fears over human rights
from America on Friday to become the first major Western leader to visit Turkey since the coup.
Before meeting the president, Mrs May paid her respects at the tomb of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic.
Dressed in black, she laid a large red and white wreath – the colours of Turkey’s flag – before Ataturk’s sarcophagus and bowed her head in respect.
“It is a great honour to visit this special place of remembrance to the founding father of modern Turkey,” she wrote in the visitors’ book. “Let us together renew our efforts to fulfil Ataturk’s vision of peace at home and peace in the world.”
The focus of her trip was talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, and Binali Yıldırım, the nation’s prime minister. The Prime Minis- ter is attempting to balance the need for Britain to forge new alliances with countries beyond the EU after Brexit with standing up for human rights and democracy.
She arrived to find her own image dominating TV screens in the presidential palace, which were showing footage of her visit to the White House.
Mrs May and Mr Erdogan joked about the weather, with the Prime Minister remarking how cold it was in Ankara – lightly covered in snow – compared with Washington DC.
In the end trade, closer military ties and a warning over Mr Erdogan’s crackdown after the coup all featured in two press conferences after talks.
The Prime Minister confirmed that Britain and Turkey are to set up a joint working group to prepare the ground for their post-Brexit trading relationship. Mr Erdogan said he hoped to increase trade between the two countries from £12.4 billion to £15.9 billion.
Following criticism of her decision to visit Mr Erdogan, Mrs May directly challenged Mr Erdogan during a jointappearance in Ankara.
The Turkish president issued a state of emergency after an attempted coup last year which saw more than 40,000 arrests, the dismissal of thousands of public officials and the closure of nu- merous media outlets. Mrs May said: “I’m proud that the UK stood with you on the 15 July last year in defence of democracy and now it is important that Turkey sustains that democracy by maintaining the rule of law and upholding its international human rights obligations as the government has undertaken to do.”
Mr Erdogan looked on in stony silence as Mrs May made the remarks.
Mrs May and Mr Yıldırım also announced a £100 million-plus defence collaboration deal on the continued development of fighter jets for Turkey. BAE Systems and Turkish Aerospace Industries agreed a partnership for the continued development of the Turkish Fighter Programme.
The Prime Minister said: “This agreement underlines once again that Britain is a great, global, trading nation and that we are open for business. It marks the start of a new and deeper trading relationship with Turkey and will potentially secure British and Turkish jobs and prosperity for decades to come.”
It was hoped the deal would pave the way for a deeper defence partnership, making the UK Turkey’s partner of choice for key aerospace technology.
Downing Street sources said that Mrs May’s opposition to human rights violations remains unchanged.
However, they said that it is important to build trade links “with an important ally and Nato member”.
Ian King, BAE Systems chief executive, added: “The announcement signals an exciting next step in relations between both Turkey and the UK.”
Mrs May and Mr Yıldırım also signed an agreement on aviation security.