Erdoğan’s North Africa Tour: Expanding Turkey’s Foreign Policy Horizons

The Turkish prime minister’s visit to three North African states earlier this month did not receive much attention due to the mass nationwide protests that were taking place. The visit was significant as it was part of a foreign policy strategy that focuses on regions that are relatively new on Turkey’s horizons.
 
Turkish foreign policy -- similar to its Western allies -- was constrained throughout the Cold War due to the division of the world into two ideological camps. Turkey being at the forefront in terms of sharing a land border with the former Soviet Union had very little room to manoeuver in initiating new foreign relations and searching for a comprehensive national stance. The collapse of the Soviet Union, while naturally giving way to a new Turkic world as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had prophetically forecast, also permitted Turkey to cast its foreign policy net into wider waters. One of these was and remains Africa.
 
The interest in Africa can be understood from economic, historical and political viewpoints. Firstly, trade and commercial relations have become an ever more important factor influencing Turkish foreign policy in general. In many ways, it is correct to highlight foreign economic relations as increasing foreign trade has become vital. This was clearly on the mind of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he identified a target of $3 billion for Turkish-Tunisian trade to be achieved as soon as possible. The Turkish-Moroccan trade balance, which hovers around $1.5 billion, was also seen to be unsatisfactory.
 
Morocco ranks as the 30th largest export market for Turkey, having purchased more than $1 billion worth of Turkish goods and services last year. An important instrument for increasing bilateral trade remains the Turkish-Moroccan Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in 2006 and has transformed the balance of trade in favor of Turkey.
 
There are currently projects under way in Morocco with $245 million of Turkish direct investment and $2.3 billion of indirect Turkish investment. The majority of these investments are concentrated on infrastructure projects such as motorways and port construction. This has led to Turkey remaining an important country in terms of trade, as it ranks as 12th export and 10th import partner of Morocco. From this perspective, one can see that Turkish construction companies are very active in the world.
 
Turkey’s bilateral trade with Algeria is the most important of the three countries Erdoğan visited as Algeria is Turkey’s 22nd largest export market, having purchased $1.8 billion worth of Turkish goods and services in 2012. In fact, when viewed from the perspective of Turkish-African trade, Algeria ranks as the third most important export market for Turks on the continent, behind Egypt and Libya. Perhaps this is why Algeria emphasizes that Turkey is a strategic partner. One could easily describe the trading relationship as one of buying and selling energy. Turkey’s imports from Algeria are almost exclusively focused on sources of energy that include liquefied natural gas, crude oil and natural gas.
 
On a final note, of the three countries visited, Tunisia is the least important in terms of Turkey’s exports as it ranks as the 38th largest export market for Turkish goods and services. In 2012, Turkey managed to export only slightly more than $800 million worth of goods to Tunisia.
 
Economic power
 
Looking at the general economic picture of Turkey, last year’s total foreign trade reached $388 billion with more than $12 billion finding an opportunity in Turkey in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI). The aim of Turkey’s economic policy is for exports to reach half a trillion dollars by 2023 with total foreign trade to exceed $1 trillion, thus making the country one of the 10 largest global economies. With its strengthening economy, Turkey has committed itself to sharing its newfound affluence as Turkish global aid nearly doubled in 2012 from the previous year to reach $2.5 billion.
 
This is significant for African countries given the fact that the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) has three regional offices coordinating various projects in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Dakar, Senegal; and Nairobi, Kenya. Additional national offices are located in Khartoum, Sudan; Cairo, Egypt; Tripoli, Libya; and Mogadishu, Somalia. A growing aid budget will necessarily mean that more African projects have an opportunity to find funding.
 
The second factor that positively affects Turkey’s relations with Africa is history. One needs to remember that the Ottoman Empire possessed territories in North Africa. The key principle associated with this fact, however, is that these lands were seen and treated as the motherland. North Africa was never considered a colony to be exploited nor was its peoples enslaved due to the color of their skin.
 
Other European empires had control of far greater territories that they continually saw as colonial possessions within which they could act as they pleased. The heritage of the Turks in terms of religious freedom and the acknowledgment of national identity has created a natural bond with North Africa, given the negative experiences of its recent colonial past. The historic Ottoman opposition to imperialism also came up time and again during the Arab Spring, with mention being made of Spain being prevented from making further inroads into North Africa.
 
The national identities of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya -- all of which were once part of the Ottoman Empire -- were permitted to be developed; their development was not impeded by the central authority. The central authority did not apply a colonial-style policy to them there was no interference as regards language. Given this historical record, which was complemented by the progressive reforms enacted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his successors, African nations have traditionally looked favorably on Turkey’s secular democratic achievements. It was, after all, when Atatürk was president in 1926 that the young Turkish Republic opened its embassy in Ethiopia, signifying the importance of the ancient cultural wealth of Ethiopians.
 
In fact, one has witnessed many North African states as well as countries such as Ghana and Senegal having thrown off the yoke of imperialism through decolonization to adopt a form of Kemalism in their state-building processes. Therefore, the historical dimension of relations has been an important encouraging factor since the ending of the Cold War in prompting Ankara to pay more attention to the African continent.
 
Soft power
 
Thirdly and finally, clear political choices have also played a role in Africa becoming more and more attractive to Ankara. It was in 1998 that an Action Plan for Africa was initiated by Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz’s coalition government with İsmail Cem as foreign minister. The central aim was to open up to the African continent, concentrating on diplomatic relations without neglecting the commercial and cultural dimensions. The action plan was a multi-dimensional endeavor as it desired to extend the new relationships into as many fields as possible, including the defense and education sectors. The current policy of the Turkish government is to continue this long-term strategic choice made 15 years earlier.
 
The educational dimension was addressed by the Turkish prime minister when he specifically expressed his full support for all endeavors aimed at strengthening relations between Turkish and Algerian universities, calling for more student exchanges and joint research projects. One common approach witnessed during his visit to the three North African countries was Ankara’s willingness to invite more students and academics to live, study and teach in Turkey.
 
Needless to say, such a strategy fits in quite neatly with Turkey’s desire to increase its soft power vis-à-vis North Africa and beyond.