President Erdoğan’s 2016 Africa Visits

Turkey initiated its current Africa Opening Plan in 1998. Besides its economic significance by then with intention to compete in the Third World markets, the motivations of Turkey to recover its already damaged state prestige due to circling actors and institutions between 1923 and 1998 also determined the plan’s general outline. With the assumption that no country from the African continent would pose a serious threat to its national sovereignty as did the Soviet Union, USA, Greece, EU, Iraq and Syria with certain occasions in this period, Turkey decided to augment the frequency of its political, economic, cultural and diplomatic relations with African countries.

Intriguingly, one of the steps in diplomatic aspect of this decision was to both increase and fragment the number of high level visits to and from Africa. Since the Justice and Development Party came to government in 2002, once Prime Minister and now President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been its most important protagonist. The official visits both in Prime Ministry and Presidency levels to Africa paid by Mr. Erdoğan deliberately made him the Turkish statesmen who have visited Africa the most in Turkish diplomatic history. In addition to his Prime Ministry level visits  to Sudan and Ethiopia in 2005,  Republic of South Africa and Senegal in 2011, Gabon, Niger and Senegal in 2013, Mr. Erdoğan visited Equatorial Guinea in 2014, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia in 2015, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Guinea in the first half of 2016 as President of Turkey. In addition, the Uganda-Kenya-Somali trip he did in the second quarter of 2016 completed the current map of where he visited in Africa so far.

Contrary to what was written particularly in the local press, the countries in Africa that were chosen for Mr. Erdoğan’s visits in 2016 do not only involve economic aspirations even though the business groups that accompanied him were very highlighted. Contextually, it would be a mistake to deny the political and social values attributed to the countries in the scope of Mr. Erdoğan’s 2016 foreign visits schedule in Africa. In this context, Mr. Erdoğan’s wish to meet the President of Senegal Macky Sall unexpectedly just during his plane’s refueling on the way to Turkey from Equatorial Guinea clearly showed how he cared for Senegal that Turkey has the most political and cultural relations with in West Africa according to Official Gazette statistics. These political and social values blurred better in next March visits. Besides economic aspects that were touched upon such as land exchange, defense, cacao-coffee production, Mr. Erdoğan wanted to show his interest to Ivory Coast as a country that started to respect Turkey because it did not close its embassy in Yamassoukro during the Presidential conflicts in 2010 between Mr.Alassane Outtara and Laurent Gbagbo unlike many other states. This visit paid to Ivory Coast strengthened political relations between two countries, but not only bolster already economic relations. Moreover, Mr.Erdoğan who always defend the importance of national will and national sovereignty in Turkey wanted to show his appreciations to Mr.Outtara’s democratic victory over Mr.Gbagbo, the previous President of Ivory Coast who denied the 2010 Presidential elections results and did not want to leave the power  democratically.  Mr.Outtara’s struggle to render democracy the ultimate value in Ivory Coast and his success thereafter became a good example to the implementation of Mr.Erdoğan’s national will and national sovereignty emphasis in the Third World.

In his second stop of his March visits, to Ghana, political factors also supported Turkey’s economic intentions.  In addition to significant donations to the Ghanaian state such as 30 public buses, a metrobus line project, an energy hub and the promotion of Turkish Airlines’ Ghana flights to 14 from 7 per week, Mr.Erdoğan demonstrated how he cared for Ghana as the first African state that Turkey recognized its independence. In addition, Mr.Erdoğan visited Ghana the very first time during his political career in Turkey, after the restoration of the Turkish Embassy in Accra in 2010 that was closed in 1981 because of financial incompetency. Accordingly, to visit Ghana as a country where Turkey resurrected its relations during the Justice and Development Party time was important for Mr.Erdoğan.

Political intentions were also visible in Mr.Erdoğan’s third stop in 2016 visits to Africa, in Nigeria. As it was the case in Ivory Coast, Mr. Erdoğan’s emphasis on national will and national sovereignty found body in Nigeria with President Muhammed Buhari wo has been ruling the country for more than a year with a democratically elected position unlike his military rule between 1983 and 1985. Nigeria as the country that was run by a democratically elected person who made a transition from military rule to civilian rule therefore constitutes a good example in Africa to how Mr. Erdoğan refers to democracy. The last stop of his March 2016 visits to Guinea, on the other hand, carried social values more than political. Mr.Erdoğan became the unique Western statesmen who visited Guinea that suffered very harshly from ebola pandemic with Sierra Leone and Liberia since 2012. Mr.Erdoğan’s Guinea visits looks similar to his 2011 visit to Somalia, in terms of his being also the first Western statesmen who visited Mogadishu in the last twenty years.

Unlike his March trips to Africa that had political and social values besides economic ones, Mr.Erdoğan’s official visits to Africa in May 2016 had security values among which Turkey’s struggle with international terrorism comes first. In Uganda where Mr. Erdoğan started his May tour, the military role of Uganda to pacify Al Shabab was discussed in addition to how Turkey could bolster its trade volume in Central Africa. Similar panorama was shared in the second stop of May tour in Africa, in Kenya, where Mr. Erdoğan called for an alliance in the region to fight Al Shabab. The last stop pf Mr.Erdoğan’s May tour in 2016, to Somalia, had much more different meanings from all other 2016 visits in Africa. Mr. Erdoğan’s visit to Somalia had a  “how things are going on” mentality after Turkey went to the way of restructuring Somalia in 2011 with a 200 million USD donation of its total 550 million USD to struggle with the famine in East Africa. Accordingly, Turkey under the leadership of Mr.Erdoğan has been supervising Somalia, and that was why to end the May 2016 tour in Somalia for Mr.Erdoğan was important.

All in all, Mr.Erdoğan managed to replace Africa into the very orbits of Turkish Foreign Policy during his Prime Minister and President posts. The official visits he paid and the businessmen he brought to Africa are now rehabilitating the prestige of the Turkish state that was hampered between 1923 and 1998 by many actors around. In this context, the countries for Erdoğan’s visits in Africa were not coincidentally but intentionally picked up, according to all economic, social, political and security concerns of Turkey with Africa and with the world. The countries in Africa for Mr.Erdoğan’s 2016 visits very well reflected his strong emphasis on national will, national sovereignty, anti-colonialism and assistance to suppressed bodies. A clear vitalization of the diplomatic steps with Africa is visible in Turkish Foreign Policy. Whereas there were only four visits to Africa from Turkey in Prime Ministry and Presidency levels between 1923 and 2003, this number reached to 19 between 2003 and 2016. Apparently, Mr. Erdoğan will continue his Africa visits in the following years Turkey will use the positive feedbacks of these visits to restore its damaged state prestige. Currently, it seems that Africa is the only region in Turkish Foreign Policy that is being shaped with the leadership of Mr. Erdoğan. In order to increase Turkey’s impact in Africa, economic and non-state actors in Turkey should take more responsibility and endeavors, and should share Mr.Erdoğan’s Africa vision more.

This article was published in Ortadoğu Analiz journal with the title of "President Erdoğan’s 2016 Africa Visits”