Companions of the new world: Turkey and Africa

DAKAR

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's trips to Africa have become one of the most important routines of his foreign policy. The relations between Africa and Turkey also hold a distinctive position compared with other countries. When Turkey approaches Africa by one step, Africa approaches Turkey by ten. It answers Turkey's slightest approach with complete goodwill. For in Turkey's approach to Africa, especially in the person of Erdoğan, a relationship stands out in which mutual love and respect are fundamental.

As we said on one of the earlier trips, the approach of Western countries to Africa throughout history offers a history of great importance for seeing the real face beneath the polished values of all of European history and modernity, such as democracy, freedoms and human rights. Today's world order was founded precisely on this relationship of exploitation, occupation and domination. It is not possible to build a new world without criticizing this relationship and without confronting it.

Turkey, however, as Erdoğan stresses on every occasion, invites to relationships in which both sides will always come out as winners, and tries to establish such relationships. That is why Erdoğan always goes on his trips with TİKA, with the Yunus Emre Foundation, with DEİK, with the Maarif Foundation, with businesspeople, and with his ministers, who are bound to be active actors of development. The activity of these institutions and these actors is not founded solely on gaining; it is always more disposed to the role of the "giving hand."

In doing so, Erdoğan does not neglect any country of Africa. For example, Gambia, which he visited yesterday for the first time, is the smallest country of Africa in terms of surface area. Yet its political stance together with Turkey is very big.

In response to the treacherous coup attempt of 15 July, it became the first country to hand over, at Turkey's request, to the Maarif Foundation by closing FETÖ's school in its country. In addition to the school where 120 students are currently studying, a lease has now been made for a new school with a capacity of 500 students. This increase in capacity is also a sign of the demand the Maarif Foundation schools are seeing in the region. As a matter of fact, the greatest miracle of the FETÖ schools, which for years presented themselves as Turkish Schools, again rested in recent years on the names of Turkey and Erdoğan. By exploiting the goodwill that the name of Erdoğan enjoys in Africa, they fell into the heedlessness of imagining this miracle to be self-derived.

TİKA also began its activities in Gambia as of 2018 and provides development assistance to Gambia in various fields. Meanwhile, although this is the first visit at the presidential level, the Joint Economic Commission already held its first meeting in 2014. The second will be held in Turkey this coming May.

Gambia, the last stop of President Erdoğan's Africa visit this time, lies within Senegal, which he visited two years ago in March, like a long, thin islet. The founding of such a country, given its geographical position, is historically a result of the struggle over division between France and Britain. Otherwise, in terms of human quality, religions and languages, there is no difference between them other than tribal differences.

Although the diplomatic relations of Senegal and Turkey began in 1962 with the embassy Turkey established there, Senegal was able to establish an embassy in Turkey only in 2006. Indeed, the relations between them, as with many countries, have developed largely through the close friendship of our esteemed President with the President of Senegal.

Here too, Turkish businesspeople have made investments that are a source of great pride. Limak built Dakar Airport and it is still successfully operated by Limak. However, trade, which was recorded at over 400 million in 2018, fell below 300 million the following year. Making up for this and developing it further on a bilateral basis was emphasized.

Senegal is also one of the countries in which the Maarif Foundation is active. It has 13 schools in 4 campuses in three different cities (one each in Dakar, Thies and St Louis). That the schools are gaining strong brand value with each passing day is evident from the demand for them. At present the Foundation continues its activities in this way in 24 countries of Africa.

For the USA and European countries, Senegal is the gateway to West Africa, where a total of 300 million people live. Historically as well it was the most important center of the slave trade, the most important center especially in the slave trade that began operating with the founding of America.

Gorée Island is a place where Africans were forcibly enslaved, loaded onto ships like goods, and stored to be carried to today's civilized world, to the USA. That is why Senegal can in fact be seen at the same time as a place where the dirty history of the Western world can be read and where the most repugnant exploitation of human beings is remembered as a lesson.

At the business forum he attended during his previous visit, President Erdoğan repeated that the world is bigger than five, said that a new world order would surely be established and that he wanted to walk together with Africa while this new order was being established, and touched on this historical difference:

As comrades of the new world, we have no black stain that we could show one another in our thousand-year common history. Therefore, having a spotlessly clean common history turns being in much closer cooperation in building the future into a responsibility.

The Africa trips take place as a requirement of this responsibility as well.