Turkey’s Foreign Policy in Africa: Somalia Initiative as a Test Case for Turkey’s Soft Power Diplomacy (2005-2022)

Abstract

Turkey has come to the forefront as one of the countries starting its initiatives towards Africa in the new international environment that emerged with the end of the Cold War period. Turkey had the advantage of creating a positive atmosphere to apply its historical ties and cultural similarities for the opening to Africa policy in 1998. Also, the declaration of the ‘Year of Africa’ in 2005 gave momentum to implementing soft power diplomacy in some parts of the region. In this context, the Somalia initiative has enhanced Turkey’s position to emerge as one of the active players in the region. The primary purpose of this study is to examine Turkey’s soft power diplomacy toward the African region, focusing on the Somalia initiative, its successes, and the limitations of that policy.