With strong anti-interventionist sentiment in Mali and recent political turmoil in Niger, Francophone African countries in the Sahel appear to be shedding their French colonial heritage.
Once a key player, France’s presence on the continent is now rapidly fading with little prospect of recovery, creating an opportunity for Western powers, particularly China, Russia and Iran, which are becoming increasingly assertive in Africa.
France is leaving a power vacuum, and Turkey’s Africa strategy offers lessons to NATO on how to fill it.
Ankara’s “soft” approach
The Turkish government’s foreign policy in Africa is based on a careful balance of soft and hard power. On the other hand, Turkey’s cultural and political involvement in Africa has been a prominent element in the Turkish government’s foreign policy since the late 1990s. As Turkish Foreign Ministry Director General for Eastern and Southern Africa Elif Chomoglu Jürgen explained in a recent panel discussion, the proliferation of Turkish embassies across Africa and the expansion of Turkish-speaking areas are increasing the political and political influence on the continent. Cultural opening gained momentum. An air network connecting Ankara with many African capitals.
Turkey’s strategic opening to Africa, and Turkish-African relations in general, received attention in Ankara’s “Year of Africa” agenda in 2005. According to Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the initiative helped pave the way for stronger political and economic ties with African countries, including trade and cooperation agreements. That year, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency opened its first office in Africa. It now has over 20 offices across the African continent implementing cultural and development projects. Over the past decades, Turkey has signed free trade agreements with five African countries: Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritius, Sudan and Egypt. From 1980 to 2017, the volume of trade between Turkey and several African countries increased dramatically. For example, trade between Turkey and Algeria tripled, and trade between Turkey and Egypt increased fivefold. As relations improved, efforts to promote Turkish language and culture on the continent also expanded.
Currently, thousands of African students are studying at Turkish universities or in the Turkish Cypriot community with the help of Turkish scholarships. Additionally, Maarif schools in Turkey provide Turkish language education to approximately 20,000 students from 24 African countries. Under the ruling Justice and Development Party, relations between Turkey and Africa have further improved, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saying Turkish and African peoples have forged “heart-to-heart” ties. This heart-to-heart connection is also evident on state visits, such as Erdoğan’s visit to Mogadishu in 2011 during a period of widespread hunger and drought that affected more than 12 million people across the Horn of Africa. became.
Contribution of Türkiye’s “hard power”
In addition to leveraging soft power, Turkey has been deploying hard power in the form of burgeoning defense diplomacy and military capacity building in order to connect with African countries. The positive momentum in Turkish-African relations has also led to closer security and military cooperation, especially in counterterrorism operations.
Ankara faces threats from terror groups as Turkey struggles with a decades-long terrorism problem with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish armed group recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. I can empathize with our African partners who are doing so. As these countries seek to fight terrorism, Turkey is passing on lessons learned from its counterterrorism operations to its African partners.
Turkish companies sell armored vehicles to African countries. The Turkish government has also donated similar vehicles to several countries. Armed forces of Kenya, Chad and Somalia are tracking terrorist groups with the help of these Turkish armored vehicles.
Additionally, Turkish drones are hovering over the African continent. A growing number of African countries, including Niger and Ethiopia, are deploying Turkish unmanned aircraft systems to carry out pinpoint attacks and gather intelligence on terrorist targets.
Several announcements from Turkish officials and improving relations between Turkey and Africa suggest that Turkey’s defense industry footprint on the continent may be further deepened. In the future, it is important that Turkey’s military policy includes a high degree of cooperation, after-sales service and other support, in contrast to other countries that supply weapons to African countries. In this sense, Ankara is transferring its operational concept to African countries such as Somalia.
In addition to equipping the Somali army with advanced Turkish weapons systems, Turkey established the Defense University Camp Turkom in Mogadishu in 2017 to train Somali troops. For Turkey and Somalia, such a university is a reminder that their military relationship (rather than just a series of transactions) is about strengthening joint capabilities, strengthening Somalia’s security, and fostering a common identity between their militaries. It has been proven. Moreover, Turkey’s military policy in Africa has remained largely unchanged despite recent security challenges in the region and Ankara’s open threats from terrorist organizations such as al-Shabab. This unchanged stance demonstrates the importance and depth of military and security cooperation with Somalia.
Beyond its involvement in counterterrorism and capacity-building efforts in Africa, Ankara’s positions on recent issues in the region also differ from those taken by many other NATO countries. During the recent political turmoil in Niger, Turkey refrained from making any bold claims on the issue as some countries cut off or threatened to stop humanitarian aid. President Erdoğan subsequently opposed proposals for military intervention in Niger and expressed hope that Niger would soon achieve constitutional order and democratic governance. This non-interventionist stance reflects Ankara’s strategic objective of establishing long-term relations with Niger, as well as the Military Security Cooperation Agreement signed between Ankara and Niamey, which does not include the prospect of opening a military base in Niger. appears to be closely tied to the possibility of ensuring the continuation of and protect the Turkish government’s inward investments on which Niger’s stability depends.
The future actions taken by NATO allies in Africa will have a significant impact on the continent’s geopolitical direction. Ankara’s approach, which carefully combines hard and soft power, capacity building, non-interventionism, and mutual cooperation, can serve as a lesson as Western countries are forced to recalibrate their African strategies. And while that process is underway, Turkey’s strong political and military ties with the African continent will help it counter the growing influence of NATO’s strategic rivals.
Sine Ozkarrasahin is an analyst in the security and defense program at the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, an Istanbul-based think tank. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @sineozkarasahin.
References
Photo: Somali supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raise Turkish flags in Mogadishu, Somalia, during a celebration after the second round of presidential elections. May 29, 2023.Reuters/Faisal Omar
