The history of Turkish–Somali relations continues to reveal fascinating and often unexpected episodes. Erdoğan’s decision to place Somalia at the center of Türkiye’s public agenda in 2011 was so impactful that even opposition parties felt compelled to take ownership of the issue.
In the weeks following Erdoğan’s August 2011 visit to Mogadishu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, travelled with senior party figures Gürsel Tekin and Faruk Loğoğlu to the Dadaab refugee camp on the Kenya–Somalia border, where they distributed aid and met Somali refugees. Yet what made the episode particularly striking was not the visit itself, but the political debate that accompanied it.
Gürsel Tekin openly criticized the government, arguing that Somalia had originally been a CHP initiative and claiming that his party had been the first to raise the issue and launch a humanitarian campaign.
He insisted that the government had effectively appropriated a project that CHP had already put on the agenda, while announcing that the party would send around 100 tons of food, medicine, clothing, and other humanitarian supplies to the region through the Turkish Red Crescent.
By:Ebuzer Demerci.
