By Salih Baran, Cihan Demirci and Ilker Gurel

EDIRNE, Turkey

A Qatari businessman on Saturday urged his Gulf state colleagues to invest in Turkey and praised the quality of Turkish products.

Visiting several factories in Kesan in Turkey’s northwestern Edirne province, Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim bin Faisal Al-Thani said he himself wants to invest in Turkey.

“We want to establish 10 or 15 factories in Turkey,” he said.

“It had surprised me that the Turkish products Turkey sent during the sanction period [in Qatar] and those we have seen during our visits today are of quite high quality. We didn’t know that Turkey had been producing goods of such high quality.”

He added: “The Turkish goods sent during economic sanctions made us very happy. I want to invite [Turkish] businessmen to Qatar. Also, I invite Qatari businessmen to Turkey to make investments.”

In June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain all abruptly cut diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups in the region.

They also threatened Qatar with additional sanctions if Doha failed to meet a long list of demands, including closing Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera.

Qatar, however, refused to comply, firmly denying the accusations against it and describing Saudi-led attempts to isolate it as a breach of international law and its own national sovereignty.

Turkey has supported Qatar in the face of the economic sanctions by sending it a wide range of consumer goods.