Somalia on African Day: What’s Turkey influence toward future relations in Africa?

It’s Great Day for African Nations, most of African countries become independent from horrified countries. Somalia is among the African nations which took independence earlier 1960 from Britain and Italy. it’s Great known by it’s role to give freedom and fight alongside with other African nations who were struggling for independence.

A new constitution was approved in a referendum held on June 20, 1961.

Legislative elections were held on March 30, 1964, and the Somali Youth League (SYL) won 69 out of 123 seats in the National Assembly.  The Socialist National Congress (SNC) won 22 seats in the National Assembly.  Abdi Rashid Ali Shirmarke was elected president by the National Assembly in June 1967.

Legislative elections were held on March 24, 1969, and the SYL won 73 out of 124 seats in the National Assembly. The SNC won 11 seats in the National Assembly.

Somalia was recognized as one of African Democratic Nations.

Although there were many painful years In Somalia, like prolonged drought, civil war, floods and diseases. Still we saverved.

Somalia-Turkey Relationships.

Relations between the present-day territories of Somalia and Turkey date back to the Middle Ages. The Ajuran Empire and Adal Sultanate maintained good trade and military relations with the Ottoman Empire.

In 1969, Somalia and Turkey were among the founding members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Turkey originally maintained an embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, until the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991. It subsequently discontinued operations due to security reasons.

Over the ensuing interim period, the Turkish authorities continued relations with Somalia’s newly established Transitional National Government and its successor the Transitional Federal Government through their non-resident diplomatic mission in Addis Ababa.

Following a greatly improved security situation in Mogadishu in mid-2011, and a visit by then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (now the President Of Turkey ) which was  the first by a non-African leader since George H. W. Bush’s visit during New Year 1993, the Turkish government re-opened its foreign embassy with the intention of more effectively assisting in the post-conflict development process.

It was among the first foreign administrations to resume formal diplomatic relations with Somalia after the civil war.

Development cooperation

Development cooperation between Somalia and Turkey is multi-tiered, and includes military, social, economic and infrastructural partnerships.

During the drought of 2011, Turkey contributed over $201 million to the humanitarian relief efforts in the impacted parts of Somalia.

In partnership with the Somali government, Turkish officials have also launched various development and infrastructure projects in Somalia.

They have assisted in the building of several hospitals, and helped renovate and rehabilitate the Aden Adde International Airport and the National Assembly building, among other initiatives.

Turkish Airlines became the first long-distance international commercial airline in two decades to resume flights to and from Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport.

In September 2013, the Turkish company Favori LLC also began operations at the airport.

In January 2015, Mohamud and Erdoğan concurrently inaugurated a number of new Turkish-built development projects in Somalia, including the Digfer Hospital in the capital. It was concurrently renamed Erdoğan Hospital in honour of Erdoğan.

Military Cooperation 

In September 2017, a Turkish military base was formally inaugurated in Mogadishu. Over 10,000 Somali soldiers were to be trained at the facility. At the date of its construction, it was the largest overseas military facility built and managed by Turkey.

What’s Turkey influence toward future relations in Africa?

H.E. Mevlüt Cavusoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey who send Hopeful message to congrat on African nations to their common day of independence said that “Turkey  approach to African countries completely matches the founding principles of the AU and is built on a holistic, inclusive, equal partnership on the basis of mutual respect and win-win strategy. We share the spirit of 1963 and the vision of Africa and attach great importance to Agenda 2063 and UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals”.