Erdogan stepping up interference in Africa

Shaimaa Yahia

Turkey has always been trying to exploit the problems African countries go through in imposing its control over these countries.

This comes at a time Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tries to revive the Ottoman caliphate in the African continent.

He uses soft power in some countries, including in Somalia and Mauritania, to achieve that goal. In other countries, he interferes in a despicable manner.

In Africa, Turkey masquerades as a country that tries to offer humanitarian help to the needy. However, the same policy hides behind it its desire to expand its influence in the continent.

Mauritanians rose up against Turkish interference in their country recently. Dozens of ordinary people staged a protest outside the Turkish embassy in Mauritanian capital Nouakchott on September 4 against Turkish interference in the African state.

The same demonstrators accused Turkey of backing terrorist organizations, especially the Muslim Brotherhood movement, in their country and in other countries. They asked Turkey to stop interfering in their country’s affairs and in the affairs of other African countries.

Expanding influence

Turkey stepped up its charity activities inside Mauritania in its search for influence inside the African country.

The Mauritanian government tightened the noose around these activities by shutting down the charities that received direct support from Ankara.

The fear in North Africa is that terrorist groups operating in Libya can find a safe refuge in African states, given the deteriorating security conditions of these states.

According to the European Center for Counterterrorism and Intelligence, Tunisia can turn into a new meeting point for terrorist and extremist groups.

This country can become a backyard for the revival of terrorism in North Africa, the center said.

Algeria is not far away from the terrorism threat either, especially if security conditions in it deteriorate, the center said.