Ireland–Turkey relations are the bilateral relations between
Ireland and
Turkey. Formal relations were established in 1972. Ireland's embassy in
Ankara was opened in 1998. Turkey has had an embassy in
Dublin since 1973. Both countries are full members of the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
, the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the
Union for the Mediterranean
The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM; french: Union pour la Méditerranée, ar, الإتحاد من أجل المتوسط ''Al-Ittiḥād min ajl al-Mutawasseṭ'') is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the M ...
and the
World Trade Organization (WTO). Furthermore, Ireland is a member of the
European Union while Turkey is a
candidate.
History

During the
Great Famine in Ireland of the 1840s,
Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid
Abdulmejid I ( ota, عبد المجيد اول, ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i evvel, tr, I. Abdülmecid; 25 April 182325 June 1861) was the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and succeeded his father Mahmud II on 2 July 1839. His reign was notable for the r ...
(pronounced Abdul Majid) donated £1,000 to famine relief (equivalent to between US$84,000 and US$216,000 in 2019). A letter written by Irish notables in the Ottoman archives explicitly thanks the Sultan for his help.
According to legend,
[ the Sultan had originally intended to send £10,000, but either ]British diplomats
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
or his own ministers requested that the Sultan send only £1,000, so as not to violate protocol by donating more than Queen Victoria, who had sent £2,000. He is also said to have sent three[ or five][ ships full of food.] Shipping records relating to the port appear not to have survived. Newspaper reports suggest that ships from Thessaloniki (Selanik) in the Ottoman Empire sailed up the River Boyne in May 1847, although it has also been claimed that the river was dry at the time.[ In 1995, the Drogheda ]town hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
erected a placard in commemoration. In 2012, plans were announced to produce a film on the subject,[ starring Colin Farrell and several Turkish stars.
The claim that he had wanted to give £10,000 first appears in Taylor & Mackay's ''Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel'' (1851), but the book is not referenced and no source is given. A second source, dating to 1894, is more explicit: the Irish nationalist William J. O'Neill Daunt claimed to have heard from the son of the sultan's personal physician that he "had intended to give £10,000 to the famine-stricken Irish, but was deterred by the English ambassador, Lord Cowley, as Her Majesty, who had only subscribed £1000, would have been annoyed had a foreign sovereign given a larger sum…"]
Economic relations
In 2011, bilateral trade volume reached 1,19 billion USD with an Irish surplus of US$485 million. By the end of March 2012, 289 companies with Irish capital were active in Turkey. Ireland's direct investment in Turkey reached US$337 million in 2011.
Turkish Airlines currently operate two daily flights between Dublin and Istanbul, with seasonal flights to Antalya. Aer Lingus, Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...
and SunExpress
SunExpress, is a Turkish-German airline based in Antalya. SunExpress was founded in October 1989 as a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. It operates scheduled and chartered passenger flights to 90 destinations in 30 countries ...
also operate seasonal flights to some Mediterranean Turkish cities.
See also
* Foreign relations of Ireland
The foreign relations of Ireland are substantially influenced by its membership of the European Union, although bilateral relations with the United States and United Kingdom are also important to the state. It is one of the group of smaller nat ...
* Foreign relations of Turkey
Physically bridging Europe and Asia, Turkey is a secular country that has pursued a Western-oriented foreign policy.Robins, Philip. Turkey and the Middle East. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs and New York: Council on Foreign R ...
* Turks in Ireland
Turks in Ireland ( tr, İrlanda Türkleri, ga, Turcaigh in Éirinn) are Turkish people who live in Republic of Ireland, Ireland having been born elsewhere or are Irish-born but have Turkish roots. By Turkish roots, this could mean roots link ...
* Turks in Europe
* Town arms of Drogheda
References
External links
Embassy of Turkey in Ireland
Embassy of Ireland in Turkey
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Ireland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ireland-Turkey relations
Turkey
Bilateral relations of Turkey