Turkey and Iran Decide to Improve Trade Relations

While Turkey's chances of joining the EU are looking less and less likely, Turkey's relationship with Iran is improving. This is both what I had expected and feared. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed that trade between the two countries should be increased to an annual level of $10 billion. The proposal apparently originiated from Erdogan, and would increase trade from around $6 billion annually according to the article. The article also states that in 2002 the countries agreed to increase trade from $1.2 billion annually to $5 billion annually. All this means that relations between Turkey and Iran are improving almost as fast as relations between the EU and Turkey are disintegrating. This is all expected though. Does anyone doubt that if the EU continues to push Turkey away it will push the nation right back into the Middle East?

Iran, Turkey Decisive to Boost Exchanges