A new era between Turkey and Algeria

As of today, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is completing his contacts in Algeria and setting off for Gambia. By visiting Senegal after Gambia, he keeps up the custom, which he has made almost a rule, of visiting at least three countries on his Africa trips.

On his most recent trip, two years ago in March, he again visited Algeria and Senegal, and as the 3rd and 4th countries he had visited Mali and Mauritania. Now, instead of Mauritania and Mali, his route includes Gambia, which he will visit for the first time and where even the first presidential-level visit from Turkey will take place.

As we said before, in every country he goes to the President holds a business forum, putting forward a vision and motivation that will carry the economic relations between the two countries to a better point.

It is never intended that this opening should bring one-sided benefits only to Turkey. On the contrary, in order for relations to be carried to further points and sustained, there needs to be a two-sided gain. This is also the most important message of the DEİK business forums. This is precisely what distinguishes Turkey, in the past and today, from other countries in its interest in Africa: Turkey's relationship with any country is bound to benefit that country to the same extent.

The Algeria leg of the trip is very important in particular because of the changes the country is going through, as well as the country's weight in the region and its trade volume with Turkey.

As is known, the protest movements that began when former President Bouteflika, who had been governing the country since 1999, announced that he would run for the presidency for the 5th time, and that continued for months, brought about the postponement of the elections and Bouteflika's backing down and giving up his candidacy. The postponed elections were held a while ago, and Abdelmadjid Tebboune was elected President in the first round with 58 percent of the votes.

Although some of the protest movements are still continuing because they regard Tebboune as a representative of the old regime, in the end an election has taken place and there is now a President in Algeria elected with a significant share of the vote. Even if his relations with the former ruling stratum are good, this is an important opportunity for reconciliation in this society. If a free political environment has formed without the demands of the social segments being entirely disregarded and without anyone being excluded from the political arena, this is a great gain, especially for today's Arab-Islamic countries.

Unfortunately, many Islamic countries are deprived even of this minimum environment of reconciliation, even of an environment of freedom of expression and political participation. Algeria is, in this respect, a country continuing its political process with an important maturity. It can be said that this maturity has much to do with the lessons drawn from bitter experiences in the past.

Truly, the most important thing to avoid is for problems of political reconciliation to lead to violent conflict or to a coup that entirely ends the political environment. Of course, there can also be an opportunism of imposing a separate authoritarianism by regarding the sensitivity to avoid this as a weakness.

Whatever anyone may say, Algeria has at this moment achieved an important stage on the path of democratization and nationalization. Of course, among the disputing parties it is not necessary that everything one side says be accepted. What matters is that the parties not be ignored and that there be a certain reconciliation. The news that President Tebboune is preparing a general amnesty and political arrangements to increase this level of reconciliation and political participation gives hope.

President Erdoğan closely followed this development in Algeria and received the will of the Algerian people with great respect and appreciation; after Tebboune's election was announced, he was the first head of state to call and congratulate him. Algeria is a country in North Africa with very important potential through its geopolitics and its material and human wealth. After Libya and Nigeria, it is the third richest country in Africa in oil reserves, and after Nigeria it is the country with the most natural gas reserves. Against a geographical size almost three times that of Turkey, it has a population only half of Turkey's (42 million).

This is not, of course, its most important wealth. It has a very young population, and, if well governed, this is in fact a very great human resource for Algeria. To see such a young population simply as a source of cheap labor is the easiest thing to do. Yet this population is also a very great opportunity for good educational institutionalization. This gives a horizon that must certainly be seized for a very important cooperation in the field of education between Turkey and Algeria.

The Algerian people are a people who, with their noble struggle of resistance against colonialism, have shown the most exceptional example of preserving identity and character.

There is no difficulty a state cannot overcome by taking such a people on its side, or, to put it more correctly, by standing by the side of such a people.

Of course, the Libya issue is also certainly on the agenda during the visit to Algeria. Let us say just this much: Algeria's long preoccupation with its own internal problems has had a great deal to do with the Libya issue coming to this state.

Otherwise, Algeria would not tolerate a country with which it shares a long border being occupied in this way and governed by proxy from afar.

Those who, taking advantage of the gap in between, have ventured to occupy will have to take into account that, from now on, Algeria has turned to the scene as much as Turkey has.