In Ankara, Carney looks to turn the page in Canada’s relationship with Turkey

ANKARA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is betting that a promise to deepen Canada’s economic and social ties with Turkey will help reset relations between two countries that haven’t always seen eye to eye.

Canada is forming a three-year “strategic partnership” with Turkey aimed in part at securing a free-trade agreement, Carney announced Thursday after an hour-long meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.

In a prepared statement delivered alongside Erdogan, Carney said Canadian negotiators will return to Turkey next month to begin negotiations on a free-trade deal.

“By lowering costs, cutting barriers and creating greater certainty, we will open new doors for companies and investors in both of our countries,” Carney said.

He noted the partnership comes with a three-year action plan and called Turkey an “exceptional partner.”

According to Erdogan’s translator, the Turkish president called Carney a “dear friend” numerous times during their public remarks.

Erdogan said he hopes trade between the two countries will roughly double to $10 billion and said he plans to visit Canada with a group of Turkish business leaders.

Neither Carney nor Erdogan took questions from reporters Thursday. Carney is expected to speak with Canadian media on Friday in Istanbul.

When Erdogan seemed to speak off the cuff at the end of the leaders’ prepared remarks Thursday, he acknowledged in Turkish that there had long been a “disconnect” between Canada and Turkey.

“Now comes a new period, a new era for Turkey and Canada,” Erdogan said, according to the translator.

Despite the fact both Canada and Turkey are NATO members with formal diplomatic relations dating back to 1944, no Canadian prime minister had made a bilateral trip to Turkey before Carney.

The two countries have clashed over human rights issues in the past and Canada imposed a recent arms embargo on Turkey that lifted in 2024.

Thursday’s joint statement from the two leaders noted that Canada and Turkey have shared values, including “human rights, individual liberties, democracy and the rule of law.”

The Erdogan government is under heavy scrutiny internationally right now over reports of official persecution of LGBTQ+ organizers, including police raids.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International called on Carney to raise the erosion of fundamental freedoms and the “deepening human rights crisis” in Turkey with Erdogan.

When asked whether Carney discussed human rights in his meetings with Erdogan, the Prime Minister’s Office said Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who joined Carney on the trip, raised the topic in discussions with her counterpart on Thursday.

The strategic partnership also will see the two countries formalize an expanded air transport agreement that could nearly double the number of flights between Canada and Turkey, assuming airlines take up the new route capacity.

The countries are also looking at opportunities in defence and energy where Canadian and Turkish companies could work more closely together.

“Trade that opens new markets, defence industries that keep us safe, energy that powers our economies, and people who bring it all together. That’s what today is about,” Carney said.

In the joint statement, the two leaders said they’re also committing to deeper people-to-people ties — something Carney also has sought with the European Union to offer more flexibility to tourists, workers and students.

Shortly after arriving in Ankara, Carney laid a wreath at Anitkabir, a grand mausoleum built in honour of Turkey’s founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

In his prepared remarks, he mentioned Canada’s gift to Turkey more than 70 years ago of two maple trees for a peace garden outside Anitkabir.

“Today we planted the seeds of something new, a strategic partnership that will create new opportunities for our workers and our businesses, and greater security and prosperity for both our peoples,” Carney said.

After his meetings with Erdogan in Ankara concluded, Carney departed for Istanbul, where he is set to meet with Turkish business leaders on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.

— with files from Nick Murray in Ottawa