Turkey’s bid to extend its influence in Africa

The Turkey-Africa summit in Istanbul is an attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to extend the influence of his country in the continent. Africa is seen by many economists as the future because its natural and human resources remain untapped. It also remains economically the poorest. In the colonial period dominated by Western European powers, Africa was also the most ruthlessly exploited continent. Of late, many of the developing and developed countries view it in a different perspective.

While the earlier approach was to establish colonies as did the Europeans, this time round other countries want to establish and strengthen economic and cultural ties with African countries. China and India have taken small steps towards Africa, China more than India. It is now Turkey’s turn to extend the hand of friendship and cooperation with African countries. In terms of realpolitik, China, India and Turkey want to extend their influence in the large continent with its vast economic resources.

The summit at Istanbul on Friday was attended by 16 heads of state, 102 ministers as also representatives of African Union and the Economic Community of West African States. President Erdogan emphasized the importance of Africa, saying that the continent is home to 1.3 billion people and it is still not represented in the United Nations Security Council. “This is a huge, flagrant injustice,” he said. Erdogan and Turkey have been looking to Africa for quite sometime now. Erdogan said that he had visited 30 countries in Africa during his 50 trips since 2004. He declared, “This summit is a testament to the fact that Turkey is interested in Africa, and Turkey’s interest in Africa is not a temporary interest, it is a maintained commitment.” Lamenting that only six per cent of people in the continent have been vaccinated so far, he said that Turkey will share 15 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines with African countries in the next few months.

Apart from looking to oil resources in Angola and Nigeria, Turkey wants to extend defence tie-ups with the African countries. Erdogan claimed, “We understand security challenges from Daesh, Boko Haram and Al-Shahab are not for a few countries only, but a shared challenge. Turkey has advanced technology when it comes to the defence industry, and Turkey has great experience when it comes to counter-terror operations.” This is a hard sales pitch, and Turkey only wants to expand its military footprint in the continent. It has a military base in Somalia, and its troops are present in Libya where they are backing a UN-recognised government. Turkey also wants to sell its drones.

It is but natural that Turkey should want to connect with Africa because during the Ottoman period, the empire extended to northern Africa and there were ties with other parts of the continent as well. For long Turkey was keen to be part of European Union (EU), but the EU countries resolutely blocked the attempt for both racial and religious reasons. And Turkey has finally turned its back on Europe. And Africa is a natural historical partner for Turkey. Istanbul is not interested in confining itself to economic partnership with Africa in the manner of China. It wants to be a recognized power in the continent which will play a decisive role in its affairs, and it wants to do so through sale of arms. Ethiopia and Morocco buy arms from Turkey and Istanbul wants to expand its arms trade in the continent as there is a perception that Turkey has advanced defence technology. It would appear Turkey wants to replace the European powers like France and Britain which had played a role in the continent.