Turkish-Russian relations and Laleli

Years after studying there, I went back to Laleli on the invitation of the Laleli Industrialists and Businessmen Association, or LASIAD. We met with LASIAD President Orhan Altun and some members of the board.LASIAD was formed in the 1990s when Laleli was in a quest for a new identity. The district happened to be the center of the "suitcase trade" in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviets. Home to about 10,000 businesses between the Beyazıt and Aksaray districts, Laleli was disturbed by being labelled the "center of suitcase trade".

Your oil is your textile
There is no other production hub in the world like Laleli that exports 100 percent of all goods produced in the district, according to Altun who said even Japanese visitors had come to Laleli to examine this phenomenon. "They were surprised by our potential," they told us, "your oil is your textile and read-made clothing." Central Bank data records annual export from Laleli as worth between $5 billion to $6 billion.

In short, the days of only a suitcase trade have been left behind, with 80 percent of sales realized through official export channels. As the Japanese examined what was going on in this district, the Chinese and even Italians were checking out the place for fashion espionage.

Laleli has been transformed into a fashion center, it determines new trends. Halil Kanpak, LASIAD board member and owner of "Romano Botta," owns 11 stores in Russia and plans to add four more in 2009. Alright but why is the name of the company Italian?

Although Italy feels competition from Turkey in the ready-made clothing sector, Italians are still fashion giants and most importantly, Italy is a fashion brand. So, Turkish firms getting more famous each day, prefer to have Italian names. "Romano Botto" is the name of a very close Italian friend of Kanpak.

Osman Kaplan, another LASIAD board member, who named his companies with Italian sounding nouns, such as "Doramafi" and "Sicilyalı" (Sicilian), has a franchise on the Aruba Island in the Caribbean. But, is Laleli not far away from Aruba?

Businessmen from Laleli are all over the world, mostly doing business with Russia. As a former Russian ambassador to Ankara said once, Russia learned how to trade mostly from Turkish businessmen. For businessmen in Laleli, the course of Turkish-Russian relations is extremely important after Turkish trucks carrying textile goods were kept for days at the Russian border in August. That was due to policies Ankara followed in the short Russian-Georgian war. This is not a secret.

The issue of truck lines at the border now seems to have been resolved, but the higher taxes Russia applies are on the agenda. LASIAD hopes the problem will be overcome through a dialogue between the Moscow and Ankara administrations. But LASIAD members in Laleli are keeping an eye on Turkish-Russian relations as the honeymoon atmosphere will mostly help them.