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It’s high time for the Turkish state to favor from the resources of Turkish Diaspora, chairman of Chamber of industry and foreign economic relations executive council (DEİK) Rona Yirjal said.

Rona Yirjal signified the role of Turkish Diaspora calculated 6 million as a serious strategic resource. Turkey is encouraged to connect with Turkish descendents abroad making it a competitive force on international platforms. In this respect Armenia has been pointed at as the best example.

“Look at Armenia, a country having no access to sea, challenging economic shortcomings, but due to its Diaspora they have success. The same is with Israel,” said Yirjal.

The Turkish official released some data to calculate and assess the chances of Turkish Diaspora. Ten world countries are widely inhabited by Turks. Turkey is ranked 10th to send students to USA with 130.000 Turkish students now studying abroad. In recent 10 years 3.700 Turkish businessmen have made $25 billion investments in 109 countries. 350 staffers in “Microsoft”, 35 in “Google”, 75 in “Boeing” are of Turkish origin.

“If we don’t back the Turkish Diaspora our country will fail to cope with challenges. For example, there are 500.000 French citizens of Armenian origin, and there are 350-400 thousand Turks in France, while the majority does not have citizenship. In Germany more than 3 million Turks are living, but we failed to use them as a united Diaspora. Every year in April famous Armenian issue requires great attention. It’s time to use the power of our Turkish people abroad,” Rona Yirjal said.