One more player in Africa
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talkpoliticsIf you have the chance to fly from an exotic place like Casablanca to a strange place like Mogadishu in war-torn Somalia for example, you would probably be on board the Turkish Airlines (they serve amazing food, by the way). The reason is that the company has 45 African destinations in its portfolio, which makes it the largest carrier on this continent. But what is Turkey doing in Africa, you may ask? Simple: it's making money. It is accumulating influence in a place that others consider too risky, or too early to go to.
Turkey's trade with Africa rose up to 23.4 billion dollars last year. More than half of that is Turkish exports. This means that nearly one dollar in 10 out of the 157 billion Turkish total exports had come from Africa. Such are the benefits that a single country could draw out of trade with the world's 18th largest economy that is Africa. Indeed, Africa has vast untapped potential, and it often remains underrated and overlooked. But Turkey has recognised the perspectives, and is now scrambling to assert more solid positions here. Just like another emerging economy has done lately: China.
In fact, Turkey's interest in Africa is fairly recent. The main markets for them used to be the Middle East and Europe, and their main strategic agenda was connected to Central Asia. Their historical ties were on the Balkans. But all this started to change in the 90s. First, Turkey managed to bring countries like Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan into its orbit. Meanwhile, the Turkish economy started to grow. And the expanding industry needed new markets.
So in 1998 Turkey created a strategy, colloquially called The African Opening. Among other things, it planned that the trade exchange would reach 50 billion dollars by 2023. Today, when the Middle Eastern markets are in collapse, the Russian market suffers a heavy crisis, and exports to Europe have shrunken by 15%, among other things, due to political tensions, the vision of the Turkish politicians from the late 90s seems to have been prudent. Thanks to that strategy, Turkey has embassies in 39 out of the 54 African countries today. And the African countries have 32 embassies in Ankara.
Of course, it wasn't the Turkish diplomats who stepped first on African soil. In fact, the influential cleric Fethullah Gulen was the trailblazer there. Just as he had done about a decade earlier in the countries of Central Asia and the Balkans, he started setting up language schools and private academies across the African countries. Despite the lack of official data, it is believed that his network now amounts to more than a thousand education institutions in Africa. Just like in Turkey, the students who were trained there later tend to find it easier to get jobs in prestigious universities, and are set to form the future political and economic elites of their respective countries. It is likely that similarly to Turkey, the graduates of those schools will form an informal network that would then pursue the agenda of their mentor, Gulen.
Which is exactly why, after the rift that occurred between Gulen and Erdogan in 2011, Turkey has started replacing the invisible connection networks, and installing Erdogan's puppets in the place of Gulen's puppets - be it through subversion or by force.
That same year, Turkey granted 1000 full scholarships to students from Somalia. Erdogan, then still prime minister, made a number of state and private universities find slots and funds for their new students from Africa. The condition he put to the students was that after graduation, they would have to return to Somalia. This program still exists to this day. It has costed about 70 million dollars for the last 4 years. Turkey considers these expenses a reasonable investment in the future ruling elite of Somalia.
This might sound a bit far-fetched for the time being, granted. The truth is, half of those scholarships are for the training of imams at Turkey's wealthiest state organisation, the TRF (their directorate on religions, or the Diyanet). Apart from having the largest budget in the country, this organisation produces clerics, who are unconditionally devoted to its chairman, Turkey's chief mufti, Mehmet Gormez. So when he recently said the TRF is directly concerned with the well-being of the Muslims in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Russia, that wasn't just some hollow boasting. It was a fact.
The shared religion is indeed the main advantage of the Turkish business against other competitors in Africa, where Westerners are viewed with suspicion (and for a reason). Turkey has intimate knowledge of the religion of a large part of the continent's population, they are well-versed in Islamic financial practices, and they share the same traditions (including working days and holidays) with the Muslim section of Africa. This naturally opens a lot of doors to Turkish business: in countries like Algeria, Lybia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Somalia. This gives Turkey a serious advantage to its European, Asian and North American rivals, when it comes to asserting a position on those promising markets.
It is thanks to another policy that Turkey gains even further upper hand in this competition, including against juggernauts like China. Although Turkey doesn't have as much investment, projects and concessions in Africa as China does, it is still a more desired partner by the African governments. The reason is that in each and every Turkish project on the continent, from textile factories in Ethiopia to the construction sites of future hospitals and roads, the Turkish entrepreneurs invariably hire local labour. This creates jobs and provides a living to tens of thousands. The Chinese business follows a different model. It always brings its own workers along with it, no matter if the project is being realised in Sri Lanka, Panama, or any of the African countries.
The Turkish approach is going to bring Ankara lots of benefits in the long term, and this is starting to show. When Turkey ran for membership at the UN Security Council for 2008-2009, it was elected mostly with the help of 52 African votes. Turkey then repeated the exercise for 2015-2016, only to lose the vote at the UN General Assembly to Spain - again, the turbulence in Africa resulting in a more fragmented vote being the main f
actor.
Still, Turkey keeps pursuing its ambitious plan in Africa. Right before the G20 summit (which is taking place in Turkey), the country organised a top-rank meeting on energy issues with the African Union. Erdogan's little secret is that with its investments in Africa, Turkey is looking to diversify its energy sources. So, their main trade partners on the continent are Algeria, Egypt, and even the failed state Libya.
His bigger secret is that Turkey relies on quiet diplomacy in Somalia to gain a more favourable position for the time when the hypothetical vast energy resources of the Somalian runaway province Puntland begin to be developed. But the former part of the Turkish intentions could have a problem with the results of the Turkish diplomacy itself. For example, in Egypt, Erdogan is betting on the Muslim Brotherhood, who have been thrown under the bus by the new regime. And the latter part of the plan still seems too bold and far-fetched.
What is certain for the time being, Turkey's African ambitions are having some unexpected consequences. One of them has directly affected Europe. Recently, the EU agency Frontex qualified the expansion of the Turkish Airlines as the main engine for the influx of immigrants from Africa to Europe (there are even claims that the air carrier is transporting many refugees free of charge). And meanwhile, now that the Turkish territory has become over-saturated with Syrian refugees, many of them are being allowed (and even aided, as another claim goes) in easily crossing Turkey and reaching the EU borders, and then entering the EU in swaths. There is a growing accusation that Turkey is dumping refugees into Europe, now that it has realised it is not going to get any assistance from Europe in dealing with its own huge refugee issues.
All that said, the story of Turkey's involvement in Africa is yet another example of the mechanisms that could allow an assertive economy to benefit from being the first to step onto a new market - and having its own ways to connect with those markets at a fairly intimate level. So, if you have the chance to go to Mogadishu some day, do not be surprised when you notice that the boulevard leading from the airport to the city is called Erdogan Blvd.
Turkey's trade with Africa rose up to 23.4 billion dollars last year. More than half of that is Turkish exports. This means that nearly one dollar in 10 out of the 157 billion Turkish total exports had come from Africa. Such are the benefits that a single country could draw out of trade with the world's 18th largest economy that is Africa. Indeed, Africa has vast untapped potential, and it often remains underrated and overlooked. But Turkey has recognised the perspectives, and is now scrambling to assert more solid positions here. Just like another emerging economy has done lately: China.
In fact, Turkey's interest in Africa is fairly recent. The main markets for them used to be the Middle East and Europe, and their main strategic agenda was connected to Central Asia. Their historical ties were on the Balkans. But all this started to change in the 90s. First, Turkey managed to bring countries like Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan into its orbit. Meanwhile, the Turkish economy started to grow. And the expanding industry needed new markets.
So in 1998 Turkey created a strategy, colloquially called The African Opening. Among other things, it planned that the trade exchange would reach 50 billion dollars by 2023. Today, when the Middle Eastern markets are in collapse, the Russian market suffers a heavy crisis, and exports to Europe have shrunken by 15%, among other things, due to political tensions, the vision of the Turkish politicians from the late 90s seems to have been prudent. Thanks to that strategy, Turkey has embassies in 39 out of the 54 African countries today. And the African countries have 32 embassies in Ankara.
Of course, it wasn't the Turkish diplomats who stepped first on African soil. In fact, the influential cleric Fethullah Gulen was the trailblazer there. Just as he had done about a decade earlier in the countries of Central Asia and the Balkans, he started setting up language schools and private academies across the African countries. Despite the lack of official data, it is believed that his network now amounts to more than a thousand education institutions in Africa. Just like in Turkey, the students who were trained there later tend to find it easier to get jobs in prestigious universities, and are set to form the future political and economic elites of their respective countries. It is likely that similarly to Turkey, the graduates of those schools will form an informal network that would then pursue the agenda of their mentor, Gulen.
Which is exactly why, after the rift that occurred between Gulen and Erdogan in 2011, Turkey has started replacing the invisible connection networks, and installing Erdogan's puppets in the place of Gulen's puppets - be it through subversion or by force.
That same year, Turkey granted 1000 full scholarships to students from Somalia. Erdogan, then still prime minister, made a number of state and private universities find slots and funds for their new students from Africa. The condition he put to the students was that after graduation, they would have to return to Somalia. This program still exists to this day. It has costed about 70 million dollars for the last 4 years. Turkey considers these expenses a reasonable investment in the future ruling elite of Somalia.
This might sound a bit far-fetched for the time being, granted. The truth is, half of those scholarships are for the training of imams at Turkey's wealthiest state organisation, the TRF (their directorate on religions, or the Diyanet). Apart from having the largest budget in the country, this organisation produces clerics, who are unconditionally devoted to its chairman, Turkey's chief mufti, Mehmet Gormez. So when he recently said the TRF is directly concerned with the well-being of the Muslims in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Russia, that wasn't just some hollow boasting. It was a fact.
The shared religion is indeed the main advantage of the Turkish business against other competitors in Africa, where Westerners are viewed with suspicion (and for a reason). Turkey has intimate knowledge of the religion of a large part of the continent's population, they are well-versed in Islamic financial practices, and they share the same traditions (including working days and holidays) with the Muslim section of Africa. This naturally opens a lot of doors to Turkish business: in countries like Algeria, Lybia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Somalia. This gives Turkey a serious advantage to its European, Asian and North American rivals, when it comes to asserting a position on those promising markets.
It is thanks to another policy that Turkey gains even further upper hand in this competition, including against juggernauts like China. Although Turkey doesn't have as much investment, projects and concessions in Africa as China does, it is still a more desired partner by the African governments. The reason is that in each and every Turkish project on the continent, from textile factories in Ethiopia to the construction sites of future hospitals and roads, the Turkish entrepreneurs invariably hire local labour. This creates jobs and provides a living to tens of thousands. The Chinese business follows a different model. It always brings its own workers along with it, no matter if the project is being realised in Sri Lanka, Panama, or any of the African countries.
The Turkish approach is going to bring Ankara lots of benefits in the long term, and this is starting to show. When Turkey ran for membership at the UN Security Council for 2008-2009, it was elected mostly with the help of 52 African votes. Turkey then repeated the exercise for 2015-2016, only to lose the vote at the UN General Assembly to Spain - again, the turbulence in Africa resulting in a more fragmented vote being the main f
actor.
Still, Turkey keeps pursuing its ambitious plan in Africa. Right before the G20 summit (which is taking place in Turkey), the country organised a top-rank meeting on energy issues with the African Union. Erdogan's little secret is that with its investments in Africa, Turkey is looking to diversify its energy sources. So, their main trade partners on the continent are Algeria, Egypt, and even the failed state Libya.
His bigger secret is that Turkey relies on quiet diplomacy in Somalia to gain a more favourable position for the time when the hypothetical vast energy resources of the Somalian runaway province Puntland begin to be developed. But the former part of the Turkish intentions could have a problem with the results of the Turkish diplomacy itself. For example, in Egypt, Erdogan is betting on the Muslim Brotherhood, who have been thrown under the bus by the new regime. And the latter part of the plan still seems too bold and far-fetched.
What is certain for the time being, Turkey's African ambitions are having some unexpected consequences. One of them has directly affected Europe. Recently, the EU agency Frontex qualified the expansion of the Turkish Airlines as the main engine for the influx of immigrants from Africa to Europe (there are even claims that the air carrier is transporting many refugees free of charge). And meanwhile, now that the Turkish territory has become over-saturated with Syrian refugees, many of them are being allowed (and even aided, as another claim goes) in easily crossing Turkey and reaching the EU borders, and then entering the EU in swaths. There is a growing accusation that Turkey is dumping refugees into Europe, now that it has realised it is not going to get any assistance from Europe in dealing with its own huge refugee issues.
All that said, the story of Turkey's involvement in Africa is yet another example of the mechanisms that could allow an assertive economy to benefit from being the first to step onto a new market - and having its own ways to connect with those markets at a fairly intimate level. So, if you have the chance to go to Mogadishu some day, do not be surprised when you notice that the boulevard leading from the airport to the city is called Erdogan Blvd.
