How Turkey is harvesting anti-West, anti-China sentiments in Africa

The recent signing of a Turkey-brokered landmark agreement between Ethiopia and Somalia is a new milestone in Turkey’s Africa outreach. Under the agreement, landlocked Ethiopia would be provided “reliable, safe, and sustainable” maritime access while respecting Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. In return, Ethiopia agreed to withdraw its recognition of the de facto state of Somaliland. The deal will end a decade-old rift between the two countries. While the deal is a welcome move in bringing regional stability, it reflects Turkey’s growing influence in Africa over the past decades.

Turkey’s Africa Policy

Turkey’s proactive engagement with Africa began after the end of the Cold War and its disenchantment with the Western bloc, notably the denial of entry into the EU, and pivoted with the ascendance of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power in 2002. Erdogan stressed the policy of “zero problems with neighbours”, under which he employed a religious and cultural flavour to gain influence in the region and beyond and to fasten economic and diplomatic ties, particularly with North and sub-Saharan Africa, once the outskirts of the erstwhile Ottoman Empire.

Ankara released its foundational “African Action Plan” in 1998 to enhance diplomatic, socio-economic, and cultural ties with the continent. It culminated in Erdogan’s “Opening to Africa” policy in 2005 by becoming an observer member in the African Union and declaring it the “Year of Africa” and later becoming its strategic partner in 2008. Since then, the volume of trade between Turkey and Africa rose from $1.35 billion in 2003 to $40.7 billion in 2023. Developmental initiatives by Turkish construction firms, ie, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), have achieved a striving success in Africa, making investments of $77.8 billion by 2023.

Moreover, Yapı Merkezi and Summa, Turkish construction firms, have secured significant contracts, such as railway lines in Tanzania and Uganda, public buildings such as Equatorial Guinea’s Parliament, and ports in Somalia and Guinea. Turkey’s engagement in large-scale development projects not only provides an alternative to Chinese debt traps facing criticism across the globe but also builds confidence in African nations against the former imperial powers in the West.

Lydia Madencilik and Miller Holding, Turkish resource exploration companies, are mining gold and copper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Recently, Niger’s junta, which came to power in the 2023 coup while revoking permits of Western mining companies, most notably France, also signed deals allowing Turkey to explore crucial resources such as uranium, oil, and gas. Turkey’s investments encompass sectors such as manufacturing, textiles, and energy, underscoring Ankara’s diversification of export destinations and securing markets to guarantee raw materials and energy for its growing industries.

Defence and Security Relations

The expanding Turkish military-industrial complex with advanced technology finds Africa an appealing market, especially considering the variety of intra- and inter-state conflicts across the continent, socio-political instability, chaos, and the rise of extremism. Furthermore, Africa is blessed with rich critical and mineral resources such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, etc, and is an attractive destination for world powers. Thus, making scope for Turkey to deepen its presence in the region.

In recent years, an intensified military and defence engagement with many African countries, notably Somalia, Ethiopia, and Libya, is testimony to Ankara’s desire for an extended role. Eyeing to bolster its influence in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly the strategic Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden, Turkey sees Somalia as a gateway to it. In 2017, Turkey established its largest military base (TURKSOM) in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Moreover, both countries are participating in the exploration and extraction of petroleum in Somalia’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

Under the auspices of NATO’s Combined Task Force 151, Turkey has increased engagement in anti-piracy operations in the western Indian Ocean, as well as collaborating in combating terrorism and extremist groups like Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, etc. It has also signed a 99-year lease deal for the restoration of the Sudanese island of Suakin in the Red Sea to make it a tourist hub. The island is an Ottoman-era heritage port; Saudi Arabia and Egypt are alarmed if Turkey has military ambitions too. Moreover, Djibouti, which hosts French, US, and Chinese military bases, reportedly also invited Turkey to establish a naval base near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic chokepoint covering 30 per cent of global trade.

Over the years, Turkish defence companies such as Baykar and Aselsan have effectively entered African defence markets. Ankara has also signed some significant arms deals with Kenya, Uganda, and Tunisia. Apart from that, Turkey’s high-tech Bayraktar unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Ethiopia were proven to be a game changer in containing the civil war in the Tigray region. As per the action plan, the Turkish defence industry had estimated to increase defence exports to Africa to $10.2 billion by 2024.

Geopolitical Entanglement

Turkey’s growing outreach to Africa is marked by economic pragmatism, cultural diplomacy, and securing defence and strategic partnerships and reflects a pivotal position for Africa in Ankara’s foreign policy ambitions. Moreover, Erdogan’s emphasis on Muslim solidarity, mediation in resolving bilateral disputes, and stand-up anti-colonial rhetoric like “African Solutions for African Problems” have smartly cultivated Turkey’s goodwill as a middle power and a reliable developmental partner amidst West-China rivalry on the continent.

However, Turkey’s proactive engagement in Africa is part of what scholars termed ’neo-Ottomanism’, which has irked regional powers like Egypt, Algeria, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, reminiscing about a dismal Ottoman past. On the other hand, Turkey provides a ‘Turkish Model’ engaging and training local workers, fostering capacity building and skill development, an alternative to the traditional resource-exploitative, monopolistic, and debt-trapping powers such as the US, France, and China.

The authors are doctoral fellows at the School of International Studies, JNU. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.