Turkish ambitions on African coast threaten European security

Ahmed Adel

The international interest in the African Sahel region did not come from a vacuum, but rather it is within the core of the comprehensive foreign policy of the major countries.

The region emerged after the events of September 11, 2001 as a strategic region within the framework of the global campaign against the war on terrorism, and therefore it was not far from Turkey to seek penetration and spread there to benefit from oil resources and natural resources.

Political penetration

In 2005, Turkey announced that this year represented the “Year of Africa”, and Turkish President (then Prime Minister) Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first African tour, and in the same year the African Union granted Turkey the status of “observer”, to obtain in January 2008 the status of “the strategic partner” of the union, and it became a member of the African Development Bank in May of the same year.

In June 2008, Turkey joined the forum of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development in East Africa (IGAD), strengthened its relations with sub-African organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and culminated in that by a more comprehensive mechanism of relations represented in the Turkish-African Summit Mechanism. The first conference was held in 2008 in the Turkish capital, while the second was held in 2014 in Equatorial Guinea.

African countries voted unanimously on Turkey’s non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council for 2009-2010, and the number of Ankara’s embassies in Africa increased to 44, while the number was 12 in 2004.

Economic penetration

Economically, in November 2016, Ankara hosted the first African-Turkish business forum attended by three thousand participants, among whom two thousand represent the economic community of 45 African countries, during which dozens of agreements were signed with South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania.

Aid penetration

After 2012, Turkish interests in Africa extended to include alongside humanitarian aid, health, education, and military cooperation. In October 2014, the Turkish Maritime Task Force “Barbaros” visited 25 ports in 24 African countries, 19 of them for the first time, and with this mission, Turkey used for the first time the navy as a tool of foreign policy.

Turkey is also lending a hand to the Nigerian “Boko Haram” terrorist group, and this was evident during the recent period, as the authorities of the Republic of Niger announced the arrest of a terrorist group consisting of three people, two of whom hold Turkish citizenship, in addition to a local collaborator.

For his part, Mohamed Rabie El-Daihy, researcher on Turkish affairs, said that the name of Turkey is constantly emerging in new discussions about external influence in the Sahel and the African desert, as the number of visits conducted by Turkish President Erdogan has risen about 32 visits to 24 African countries since he was prime minister, as well as a number of visits to some North African countries, adding that Erdogan has expanded the building of embassies within African countries.

Al-Daihy adds in a statement to the Reference that the Sahel-Saharan region witnesses complicated networks of terrorist organizations that threaten the security and stability of this part of the African continent. The organizations aim to pressure governments to build joint cooperation.Turkish ambitions on African coast threaten European security