Zaman, Turkey
May 22 2005

Turkey Participates in KEI Meeting in Armenia
By Suleyman Kurt
Published: Sunday 22, 2005
zaman.com

While the debate over the so-called Armenian genocide allegations
continues between Turkey and Armenia, bureaucrats from the two
countries will discuss how to improve their economic relations at
the meeting planned at Yerevan next month, in June.

Armenia will host the yearly “Black Sea Business Days” of the Black
Sea Economic Cooperation (KEI) Trade and Development Bank, which was
founded with the leadership of Turkey, this year. Armenian President
Robert Kocaryan will give the opening speech of the meeting held
on 5-6 June. The work on what level Turkey will take part in the
meeting continue. In the case the Turkish Minister of State does not
participate in the meeting, it is stated that the Undersecretary
of The State Planning Organization (DPT) Ibrahim Canakci will
represent Turkey. The business conference was organized by the
Armenian government, Armenian banking, and business circles. At
the meeting all the representatives of KEI Trade and Development
Bank member countries’, international finance associations and
special sector representatives will also take part. Development of
regional cooperation and the potential of Armenia and the Caucasus
for investments will be discussed.

Headquartered in Selanik (Thessaloniki), the Black Sea Trade and
Development Bank began to operate on 1 June 1999. A Turk, Mustafa
Gurtin, carries on the term presidency of the bank. Turkey with Russia,
and Greece are the most powerful partners in the bank. These three
countries have 16.5 percent shares each. The share rate of Armenia,
on the other hand is 2 percent. The other KEI countries are Albania,
Azerbaijani, Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Romania, Russia,
Turkey, Ukraine, and Greece.