Turkiye as an emerging power in the horn of Africa

Abstract

While the whole African continent is at the headline politics of global and regional powers, the Eastern Africa, especially the Horn, has today been in the priority of African policies of countries. This is mainly due to the fact that recent economic, political and security developments in the Horn of Africa have turned the region especially the coastline, giving on to the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean, into one of the world’s most important geostrategic locations. This transformation of the Horn of Africa to a hub of security and economic activities pushes global and regional powers to focus more on this region. Among emerging countries in the region, Turkiye can also be cited with its recent policies towards Africa. Today, Turkiye attaches great importance to the Horn African countries in terms of political, security, humanitarian, development and even military aspects. Considering all of these, this paper will cover the interest, challenges and aspirations of Turkish engagement in the Horn of Africa, under the Government of Justice and Development Party from 2002 to our days and tries to determine why Horn of Africa has a particular place in Turkiye’s African policy. It aims to determine how the « Turkish model » that occurred from the Turkish engagement in Somalia in 2011 has an impact on defining and structuring Turkiye’s approach towards other countries in the region. Case study methodology, which provides the understanding and analysis of complex issues, will be applied from trying to answer to the questions “how” and “why” of the research. Case study helps to explain both the process and outcome of a situation through complete observation, reconstruction and analysis of the cases under investigation. Empirical data collection from various documents and books will be made.

While the whole African continent is at the headline politics of global and regional powers, the Eastern Africa, especially the Horn, has today been in the priority of African policies of countries. This is mainly due to the fact that recent economic, political and security developments in the Horn of Africa have turned the region especially the coastline, giving on to the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean, into one of the world’s most important geostrategic locations. This transformation of the Horn of Africa to a hub of security and economic activities pushes global and regional powers to focus more on this region. Among emerging countries in the region, Turkiye can also be cited with its recent policies towards Africa. Today, Turkiye attaches great importance to the Horn African countries in terms of political, security, humanitarian, development and even military aspects. Considering all of these, this paper will cover the interest, challenges and aspirations of Turkish engagement in the Horn of Africa, under the Government of Justice and Development Party from 2002 to our days and tries to determine why Horn of Africa has a particular place in Turkiye’s African policy. It aims to determine how the « Turkish model » that occurred from the Turkish engagement in Somalia in 2011 has an impact on defining and structuring Turkiye’s approach towards other countries in the region. Case study methodology, which provides the understanding and analysis of complex issues, will be applied from trying to answer to the questions “how” and “why” of the research. Case study helps to explain both the process and outcome of a situation through complete observation, reconstruction and analysis of the cases under investigation. Empirical data collection from various documents and books will be made.