Bottom Line Up Front
1. The secret of Turkey’s success :
The most important component of Turkey’s success story is “respect.”
2. Unlike the superpowers which approached African countries with their colonial, superior ethnocentric attitude, Turkey with its similar religious and cultural codes treats Africans – especially Muslim-African countries – with respect.
Africans feel that.
This is the secret of Turkey’s success.
3. Ankara’s decisive long-term Africa strategy has paid off. Thanks to its military presence and soft power engines, Turkey has become a key player in the east of the continent – especially in the Horn of Africa.
Indeed, the ability to lead to a change in the policies of East African states is the apex of Turkish influence in East Africa.
4. Therefore, Fidan’s recent press conference can indeed be interpreted as a Turkish demonstration of power and a major diplomatic success for Ankara’s foreign policy.
5. Considering that another summit between the Turkish, Somalian and Ethiopian foreign ministers is planned again in Ankara on September 2, Turkey will further enhance its role in East Africa.
As far as Turkey’s penetration in Libya is concerned, though initially Ankara’s main drive was focused on its desire to strengthen its position in the Eastern Mediterranean, with its active participation in the Libyan Civil War, Ankara has become a crucial actor in shaping this failed state’s future.
6. In addition to Libya, as an experienced player in Africa, nowadays Ankara is heavily involved in Niger. If indeed Ankara can turn Niger into a “second Somalia” – especially if the uranium allegations are true – then it seems that to secure its access to this landlocked region Turkey’s presence in Libya will be perpetual. Inevitably this access will be a two-way street. By making a deal with Turkey via Libya, Niger will acquire a bridgehead in the Mediterranean – which will inevitably bring prosperity to its land-locked economy. Seeing the immediate consequence of this alliance will most likely put other Sahel countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad under Turkish influence.
7. Bearing in mind the above, apart from its soft power and military assistance, I argue that the most important component of Turkey’s success story is “respect.” Unlike the superpowers which approached African countries with their colonial, superior ethnocentric attitude, Turkey with its similar religious and cultural codes treats Africans – especially Muslim-African countries – with respect. Africans feel that. This is the secret of Turkey’s success.
8. In order to have a legal basis for its naval territorial claims Ankara took a very creative step and signed a maritime de-limitation treaty with Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) – which was recognized as the sole legitimate government of Libya by the UN. It should also be noted that the agreement ignored Greek and Cypriot claims based on the Seville Map. Under siege by General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), the GNA had no choice but to acquiesce to Ankara’s demands to ensure its survival. On November 27, 2019, the GNA and Turkey signed a “Security and Military Cooperation Agreement.”[28] This agreement provided Erdoğan with the necessary pretext to intervene militarily in the Libyan civil war. Certainly, the survival of the maritime delimitation agreement was the most important objective for Turkey. Therefore, to secure the agreement’s survival, on January 2, 2020, the Turkish parliament ratified the decision to intervene militarily in Libya.[29]
9. As it had been excluded from the East-Med natural gas pipeline project – initiated by Greece, Cyprus and Israel – Ankara began to look for ways to prevent these three countries from launching their ambitious project. Therefore, to cut the naval contiguity between Greece’s Crete Island and Cyprus, Ankara expanded its territorial waters significantly and openly declared the European Union’s “Seville Map”[i] as void. By doing so, Ankara calculated its territorial waters from Turkish shores – disregarding the existence of the Greek islands and the United Nations Convention Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). Thus, the Greek islands turned into enclaves in Turkish waters.
Το πλήρες άρθρο :https://jiss.org.il/en/yanarocak-turkeys-deepening-inroads-in-africa/
