Investigation of Turkey's Foreign Trade Using Cluster Analysis

Abstract

Turkey's, which is among the developing countries, foreign trade is increasing with the globalization. In this study, Wards and k-means clustering methods were used to divide the countries that Turkey exports and imports into clusters. While the data set was obtained from the United Nations official website, SITC Rev. 3 level 1 codes were used as variables. In the analyzes made in the context of import and export, memberships were obtained according to the number of 3 and 4 clusters. In this respect, countries that are distant from Turkey or with small populations constitute the most crowded cluster. Germany, USA, UK, China, Brazil and Russia in import and Germany, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain, UAE, Egypt, the United Kingdom, the USA and Iraq in export separated other countries. In addition, Iraq in exports and Russia in imports have formed a cluster on their own.