The foreigners who have left Niger during the three weeks that have passed since the coup have done so from a new Turkish-built airport. The delegations that have approached to negotiate with the new authorities in Niamey, very possibly stayed in a five-star hotel of Turkish construction as well. All this happens for the same reason why the Spanish tourists detained in Ethiopia have flown back via Istanbul. Because Turkey, for twenty years, has made Africa a priority.
In the Sahel, where everything seems to be reduced to a struggle between a declining France and a growing Russia, Turkey has not stopped gaining ground, in the background. Under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ankara has multiplied its trade exchanges with Africa sevenfold. There, in international tenders, 18% of public works awards go to Turkish construction companies. Seventy billion euros in recent years, between roads, railways, stadiums and hospitals.
An influence that is also diplomatic, military and religious – with the construction of mosques – and that has not gone unnoticed by the ancient metropolises. All of this is at the origin of the disagreements two or three years ago between presidents Emmanuel Macron and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The fact is that from no city in the world can you fly directly to as many African destinations (61) as from Istanbul. Turkish Airlines, the flag airline, in which the State retains 49% of the property, has accompanied the Erdogan Government in this bet.
There are those who have wanted to reduce Turkish designs to a Neo-Ottoman fantasy. But his ambition goes far beyond Libya or Tunisia. Beyond even the numerous Muslim and Sunni countries of North Africa and the Sahel. Ankara, which twenty years ago had just ten embassies on the continent, is about to open number 44, in Guinea Bissau, to play in the same league as France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and the USA.
Erdogan has also made fifty visits to Africa, to more than thirty countries. More than any other representative. In fair correspondence, African politicians are the most faithful to their pledges.
That the new Minister of Foreign Affairs is the former head of Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan, well versed in the Libyan dossier and the amalgamation of jihadist groups, ensures that Turkey continues to play strong in Africa, to maintain its influence from coast to coast and from Tripoli – where there were skirmishes yesterday – to Mogadishu (where it has a military base).
Turkey has repatriated its citizens to Niger, but it may not take long to return, thanks to its good image in the region, where it maintains military agreements with several countries.
In Niger, the overthrown Mohamed Bazoum – of the Arab minority – acquired Turkish drones, as Mali and Burkina Faso have done, from the company of a son-in-law of Erdogan, Bayraktar. Another son-in-law’s company, Albayarak, was awarded the management of the ports of Malabo and Bata, in Equatorial Guinea, before the summer.
The 175 Turkish schools in English and French, in 26 African countries, aspire to nurture the elite of the future; their mosques, today’s preachers, and their scholarships, one and the other.
