Turkey Government and its allies like Egypt Saudi Arabia and Djibouti are considering to conduct joint operation to guarantee security of the waters between Somalia and Yemen.
that “Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Djibouti will carry out a joint operation to guarantee maritime security between Yemen and Somalia,” adding that this would effectively cancel what he called “the Somaliland project affiliated with the Israeli-Emirati axis.”
This framing is revealing. What is being described does not resemble maritime security. It resembles coercive geopolitics,an attempt to use force and regional muscle to shape a political outcome.
Historically, maritime security operations in the Bab el-Mandeb and Gulf of Aden have focused on piracy, terrorism, and weapons smuggling, particularly to Houthi forces.
The scenario Karagül outlines would not secure this vital corridor. It would militarize and fragment it, introducing rival security blocs, overlapping naval deployments, and competing strategic doctrines into one of the world’s most sensitive waterways.
More importantly, the statement betrays a deeper anxiety.
It implicitly acknowledges that Somaliland’s stability and Israel’s growing presence in the Red Sea are unsettling established power structures. The idea that a people, a territory, and 34 years of state-building can be “canceled” through naval maneuvering reflects not confidence, but fear.
History offers a clear lesson. Pressure has never made Israel retreat; it entrenches. And pressure will not break Somalilanders either, a society that struggled for 31 years to reclaim its 1960 independence and has endured 34 years of deliberate international non-recognition.
Rather than erasing Somaliland, such pressure would almost certainly internationalize its cause, elevate its strategic relevance, and strengthen its credentials for recognitions as a maritime stakeholder in one of the most critical trade corridors on earth.
