President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Welcomed Liked a King in Mogadishu, Somalia.

[Excel]

God bless President Recep Tayyip Erdogan up

There was never any doubt that Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would receive a hero's welcome in Somalia. On Thursday, he vowed to go ahead with the trip despite a bomb attack at a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on the eve of his planned visit. Later his office announced he would delay it by a couple of days in order to attend the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

Still, Erdogan's resolve to visit the Horn of Africa nation so soon after the deadly attack has only heightened his popularity. He landed at Mogadishu airport on Sunday morning and was greeted warmly by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

But how does someone currently facing a barrage of allegations - on account of corruption, delusions of grandeur, dictatorial tendencies, and polarising rhetoric - by both Turkish and western media, earn such an enviable stature in Somalia?

The fact is, Erdogan has done for Somalia what no other world leader has done in decades.

In August 2011, when Erdogan was still prime minister, he ignored the prevalent narrative of Mogadishu as a no-go zone and flew in with his family, senior cabinet members, and representatives from non-governmental organisations and the business sector.

His visit was the first by a non-African leader to the famine-hit Somali capital in two decades and came during the holy month of Ramadan to stress that Ankara was not going to abandon "their Muslim brothers and sisters".

New paradigm

Defying pressure from the international community, Erdogan resisted Nairobi's magnetic field of international corruption.

From 1991 to 2011, the UN and its affiliated international institutions - mostly based in neighbouring Kenya - collected an estimated $55bn on behalf of Somalia. Dubiously, the nation in whose name this hefty sum was collected, has not gained any substantive infrastructure-related or any other sustainable project.
Erdogan's team had clear instructions: produce tangible, sustainable results with Turkish funds totalling some $500m.

A massive bilateral nation-building effort followed; roads, hospitals, mosques, and schools were built, the airport was expanded, and many business partnerships were forged.
Within an incredibly short period of time, Erdogan's plan resuscitated Somalia from near death.

Nothing illustrates that fact more than the profound impact that the Turkish aid model has had on the average Internally Displaced Person (IDP) in Somalia.
In addition to setting up feeding centres that provide appetising foods, decent housing, and health clinics, the Turkish aid model has boosted the average IDP's standard of living with economic empowerment. This alone made Erdogan more popular than President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of the Transitional Federal Government and the current Somali president.
In fact, Erdogan's name now ranks among the most popular choices for a newborn.

Africa tour
On the one hand, Erdogan's Somalia trip is part of an Africa tour intended to strengthen Turkey's economic and diplomatic ties with a dozen of its closest African partners.

On the other, it is aimed at re-energising the strategic partnership between Somalia and Turkey and to reaffirm the latter's commitment to be in it for the long haul.
There are some western states that appear to believe that the rise of Islamic-conscious leadership is bound to impact geopolitics and therefore the balance of power in various strategic regions.

Undeniably, Africa has become the 21st century's geopolitical and geo-economic centre of gravity, and for this reason, Turkey wants to strategically establish itself. With Somalia, Turkey has a sister nation at the heart of the Indian Ocean; a nation with which it shares deep historic ties, and a high potential emerging market.

Due to the competing interests of donor nations, the trajectory of Turkish-Somali relations has not been without its fair share of opposition.
Aside from al-Shabab - which considers any friend of the government as an enemy and claimed responsibility for Thursday's bomb attack - there are under-the-radar passive hostilities that emanate from certain elements within the international community.

This is mainly down to two reasons. First, the more Turkey builds on its success in Somalia, the more the incompetence and the systemic corruption of the international aid model is exposed.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, the more Turkey succeeds, the more the Turkish political model - a hybrid of modern government with Islamic ethos - gains global prominence.

Paving the way

In recent years, the so-called Arab Spring has paved the way for Islamists to take power in a number of Arab countries. Like the AK party in Turkey, Islamists in Egypt and Tunisia have swept all elections and risen to the highest political positions.

This has made some leaders in the Arab Gulf countries very nervous. In response, they have established cozy relations with Egypt's post-coup regime whose modus operandi could be summed as follows; a good Islamist is either buried underground or dies a slow painful death in dungeons.

Not being able to beat Islamists in the ballot boxes isn't an exclusively Arab fear. There are some western states that appear to believe that the rise of Islamic-conscious leadership is bound to impact geopolitics and therefore the balance of power in various strategic regions.

It is against this backdrop that Erdogan comes to Mogadishu, to cut the ribbon on a multimillion dollar, state-of-the-art hospital named after him. He is then scheduled to have a private meeting with his Somali counterpart.

Three issues are likely to top the agenda: major projects to jump-start the Somali economy; the Somali president's awkward relationship with Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi; and Turkey's readiness to use its $3bn investment in Ethiopia as leverage to help ease regional politics of division.

After all, Erdogan has prudently supported Somalia and remained impartial in the extremely fluid and clan-driven internal politics.
Ambassador Abukar Arman is the former Somalia special envoy to the United States and a foreign policy analyst.

Source: Al Jazeera

[jackrussell]

I hope Somali will become a beacon of peace and prosperity one day .

They have suffered too long imo.

[Instinct]

God bless President Recep Tayyip Erdogan up

Please keep him in your country.

[Excel]

Thanks jackrussell, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that he would help build Somalia's navy, already the Turks are training Somalia’s national army. He also vowed that he will build 10, 000 residential houses and construct factories.

[Böri]

Somalia has special ties with Turkey. There is many Somali students and other in Turkey. I believed in past Turkey will enter Africa through Maghrib nations but this is Somalia. This is good. All best for Somalia.

[Excel]

[jackrussell]

Thanks jackrussell, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that he would help build Somalia's navy, already the Turks are training Somalia’s national army. He also vowed that he will build 10, 000 residential houses and construct factories.

I always am contemplating a solar-tower powered green Somalia .

Hope everything works out fine for Somalia .

[Böri]

Turkey's greatest strength in Africa

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's three-nation Africa tour, which includes Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia, led to renewed media interest in the Turkish government's activities in the world's poorest and most underdeveloped continent. Traveling with a large group of journalists and investors, the Turkish president has been in the limelight and on the front pages of all major newspapers. He received honorary doctorates from local universities, inaugurated a new airport and opened a number of hospitals in East Africa. More than a few local journalists recalled the memory of Mr. Erdoğan, then serving as prime minister, visiting Somalia back in 2011 at a time when few world leaders would dare set foot on that part of the world. The question, however, remains what the future holds for Turkey in the African continent.

It is no secret that a number of countries are interested in developing stronger ties with Africa – a continent crumbling under major challenges yet has the potential of becoming one of the world's largest consumer markets. Over the past decade, the Turkish government has aggressively pursued a policy of opening with African nations. Nowadays, the country aims to take the next step and adopt a policy of partnership. What, however, does Turkey have to offer that others, including China, cannot? What factors contribute to Turkey's success in Africa?

First and foremost, African audiences continue to view Turkey's presence inside the continent favorably since the Turkish government has successfully presented a combination of humanitarian diplomacy and vocal criticism of colonial legacy. At once, Turkish leaders praise the efforts of government agencies and private companies to promote economic development and create jobs across the continent. Meanwhile, Turkish leaders skillfully criticize the legacy of Western colonialism within a broader discourse of inequality. "What Africa needs today is not exploitation, but fairness and opportunity," İbrahim Kalın posited in his latest column for Daily Sabah.

Another key point is that Turkey, unlike China, has a strong tradition of electoral democracy. The country holds local and national elections on a regular basis. Constitutionalism dates back to the mid-19th century and a multi-party democracy has been in place for over six decades. Most recently, Turkish voters have directly elected their president for the first time in the nation's history. Although there is always room for improvement, Turkey nonetheless has the potential to serve as a role model for African nations suffering from a democratic deficit.

Finally, the Turkish economy's strong performance and growing tax base makes it possible for the government to provide humanitarian and development aid to impoverished African nations while encouraging Turkish entrepreneurs to expand their business into new markets. Back in 2011, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu – then serving as foreign minister – had publicly asked Turkish businesses to invest in countries like Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia in order to promote economic growth and help tackle pressing problems including nutrition-related deaths. "Turkey's approach to developing trade with African nations seems to differ from [other] nations whose overriding interests are Africa's oil resources. By concentrating on lower profile development issues such as agriculture, Turkish initiatives arguably carry the promise of effecting genuine change in the lives of masses of Africans," Mehmet Özkan claims.

Much has changed since the Turkish government announced 2005 as "the year of Africa." What started out as a modest diplomatic effort has blossomed into long-term political and economic partnerships with a number of African nations. In order to take the next step, however, the country must tap into its greatest strength: the Turkish way of life.

http://www.dailysabah.com/columns/do...ngth-in-africa

[Musso]

Erdogan readily expanding ties with Islamic States.

[Pahli]

Erdogan readily expanding ties with Islamic States.

Just one proof that Turkey isn't Western