Ankara relishes its growing influence on the continent

Turkey will in all splendor illustrate its growing influence on the African continent on December 17 and 18 in Istanbul. About twenty heads of state are expected, as many as the number of offices that the Turkish Agency for Cooperation and Development (TIKA) has on the continent.

22 offices which “consume” a third of the development aid provided by Turkey. “We have launched thousands of programs in all sectors : education, health, agriculture, industry, sustainable development, support for mothers and children, promotion of women… Each year, 5 000 Turkish experts, including a third in Africa, are engaged in training actions “, explains to Young Africa Seder Cam, the Turkish Deputy Minister of Culture who oversees TIKA.

However, the Turkish offensive in Africa is recent. Of the 43 embassies on the continent (for 54 countries), 31 have been opened since 2002. In 2005, it was the turn of TIKA’s first office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

For the past six years, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish President, has visited ten African countries, and not for tourism. From now on, the Turkish presence in Africa goes far beyond that of the Ottoman Empire, an argument often used to legitimize Ankara’s action on the continent.

Strong point of Erdogan’s policy, underlines the Africa Journal : “The Turkish head of state never encroaches on the sovereignty of African states. He thus succeeds in systematically profiting from Western disengagement.” Today, Ankara’s trade volume with Africa stands at $ 28.3 billion and Turkey wants to double its foreign trade with Africa by 2026.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, Turkey fully played the role of the big brother who flies to the aid of the weakest. Personal protective equipment, respirators have been sent to the four corners of the continent. “About 3.5 million masks, 1 million medical gowns and coveralls, 160 000 screening kits and 217 respirators were notably supplied to 45 countries “, explained Deputy Minister Yavuz Selim Kiran in a forum in Young Africa. By sending equipment also to the United States and the United Kingdom, Turkey has played a role devolved to the great powers, even if internally the management of the health crisis has not been so brilliant.

Much less glorious has been the eradication of Africa’s Gülen movement, the sworn enemy of President Erdogan, whom he accuses of being behind the failed 2016 coup in Turkey. The latter was very established on the continent and in 2015, it had around a hundred schools in nearly 40 African countries, whose vocation was to train local elites. In this episode, Erdogan largely abandoned his non-interventionist doctrine in order to obtain the replacement of the Gülenist schools by those of the Maarif foundation, a pure product of Turkish power. Twenty countries have thus yielded to pressure from Ankara.

“Everywhere I go in Africa, everyone talks to me about drones”, congratulated Mr. Erdogan after his tour in Angola, Nigeria and Togo this fall, according to AFP. It is true that the TB2 model of the Bayraktar company made an impression by depriving Marshal Haftar of a victory which he felt had been acquired in the Libyan sands. Since then, Morocco and Tunisia have placed an order, Rabat having apparently already tested the device. Deliveries to Ethiopia have been halted under Western pressure, but Ankara appears to have become a leader in supplying weapons to Addis Ababa.

According to AFP, “Turkey’s defense and aeronautical exports to Ethiopia reached $ 94.6 million between January and November, compared to around $ 235,000 during the same period the previous year.” There is no doubt that on the sidelines of the summit, we will talk about arms sales, because Turkey now wants to be an important player in the sector.