Starting with Oktay, Hamadouk government amputates arms of Turkish octopus

Mouaz Mohammad

It seems that the transitional government in Sudan has started working effectively to get rid of the Turkish presence on the country’s lands, through the anti-corruption and de-empowerment committees, which local media have revealed are currently increasing their activity to dismantle the financial and economic networks of the Islamic movement.

The Sudanese newspaper, Al-Mashhad, revealed in a report on Sunday March 22, 2020 that the responsible authorities started to open many files of corruption, in which the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir was involved, under pressure from popular forces who saw that there was inaction in the detection of these files, which enabled Turkey has control of many of the country’s economic keys.

A new package of measures is scheduled to be announced soon, which is to expose the files of government institutions, civil society organizations, and individuals who have links to the Al-Bashir regime and prove that they have obtained unjustified benefits.

Among them, there is a tendency from the competent prosecution currently to summon Oktay Shaaban Hosni, a Turkish businessman, who fled to Ankara, to investigate him for new violations related to contracts at the Water Authority.

Oktay underwent previous investigations, in January 2020, and he was released with a guarantee that he could flee to Ankara.

Ankara, through Oktay, managed to forcefully penetrate inside Sudan, taking advantage of the fertile environment of corruption provided by the ousted President al-Bashir’s regime to serve the global organization of the Brotherhood.

A report published by Sky News Arabia website says that Shaaban is an arm for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to fulfill the dream of resurrecting the Ottoman Empire through the strategic location of Suakin on the Red Sea.

Since 2011, the star of the financial empire of Oktay has risen at an accelerated pace, resulting from the trade of currency, oil, clothing, spare parts, leather, oilseeds and weapons.

Tangible changes

According to statements by the London-based Al-Arab newspaper, Sudanese sources said that the transitional government led by Abdullah Hamdouk is seeking to employ the Oktay issue politically, which suggests that Khartoum’s relationship with Ankara will witness tangible changes.

The sources pointed out that the government must demonstrate a change in its attitudes towards removing empowerment, in light of the escalation of criticisms that accuse it of inaction in dealing with this file, and the slow pace in fighting corruption.

Underneath those accusations is what Nader Al-Obaid, the head of the Zero Corruption NGO, stated in February 2020 that security forces interfered in the issue of Oktay’s release and opened the way for him to flee to Turkey despite submitting documents condemning corruption.

A decisive step late

The slowing of the transitional authority led by Hamdouk in dealing with the corruption files left by the previous regime, allowed both Turkey and Qatar to continue to interfere in the country.

In a statement to Al-Arabiya website, September 26, 2019, Fathi Hassan Othman, a leader of the Sudanese Umma Party, said that it is unlikely that the National Congress Party, which was led by Al-Bashir, has received support from Ankara and Doha to return to the political scene again.