Turkey-Somalia strategic economic and security relations

Abstract

Türkiye ile Somali arasındaki ilişkiler Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'na kadar uzanmaktadır. Bu raporu, Seminar II ders olarak hazırlanmış olup Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'ndan günümüze kadar uzanan şu ilişkiyi inceleyecektir. Bu ilişki 1990 yıllarda Somali hükümetinin çöküşüyle durmuş olsa da 1998 `Afrika Eylem Planı` dış politikasıyla tekrar başlanmıştır ve son olarak Recep Tayyip Erdoğan'ın Mogadişu'yu ziyaret ettiği 2011 yılından beri hızlı bir şekilde ilerlemiştir. Türk iş adamları ve firmalar Somali'nin tüm iş sektörlerine yatırım yapmaya başladı. Bu arada, iki hükümet arasındaki bu ilişki, Türk ordusunun Mogadişu'da bir üs kurduğu seviyeye kadar hale geldi. Türkiye'nin küresel siyasette güçlü bir aktör haline gelmek için Somali'nin stratejik konumunu son derece değerlendirmeye önem vermektedir.

Turkey-Somalia relation dates to the Ottoman Empire. This relation was based on the shared values as muslim countries and the strategic location of Somalia. The relation had two phases: Business and Security. The business phase was based on the strategic geographical location of Somalia, where it controlled the Bab-el-Mandeb strait of which the international trade used to pass through. The security phase was the intention of the Ottoman Empire to expand its control over Africa, where also the western powers were seeking to colonize this important location. Yukleyen & Zulkarnain (2015) state that the Ottoman-Somali relations further developed when the Ottomans came to aid Somalis in fending off Ethiopian and Portuguese expeditionary forces. This led to the establishment of local areas under the control of a local sultanate nominally linked to the Ottoman Empire in seventeenth century. Later, with the birth of the Somali pirates, Turkey was one of the countries who stood to counter the pirates and had a navy army in the Somali coast.From the establishment of Turkish Republic up to now, this relation passed through different stages from cut-off in the first republic terms to finally playing an important role in the Turkish foreign policy. The objective of this thesis is to analyze and evaluate this relation by focusing on business and security perspectives. The study will further investigate the Turkish Business and Secuity interests in Somalia and the Somali interests in Turkey. It also will discuss the nature this relation will have in the long-term future.The findings of the study will contribute the mechanisms of policy decision making in both countries.