ISTANBUL
A senior executive with the World Economic Forum has said it would be best to see that Turkey was represented at the highest level at forum's annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland, in an apparent appeal to Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who stormed off stage at the WEF event in 2009 after a heated debate with Israel's president.
"Continuation of our relations with Turkey is of utmost importance for us. It would be nice to see Turkey represented at the highest level again," Stephen Kinnock, WEF director and head Europe and Central Asia, said Monday.
Kinnock said Turkey had passed through a major transformation with solid political stability and a strong and financially resilient economy, adding that the country's inflation rate was no where near "incredibly high figures" of a decade earlier.
Kinnock said Turkey's economy management team had taken "some very radical measures" to back up boosting political stability, warning however that two issues remained critical for the country's economic outlook which he cited as decreasing demand in Europe and Turkey's account deficit and cost of energy imports.
The World Economic Forum on Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia begins in Istanbul on Monday, bringing together over 1,000 leaders and Premier Erdogan is set to open the event.
"What happened has happened. We need to leave that behind and move on. Turkey is very important for us and we are happy to be here again. The meeting in Istanbul is a testimony that we have the correct dialogue with Turkey", Kinnock said.
"For me Davos is no more. I will not come to Davos ever again," a very angry Erdogan said back in 2009 when he was cut off by the moderator of the session whom Erdogan accused of giving him much less time to speak than the Israeli president.
