Mogadishu (Commentary) — When President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Somalia in 2011, his go to was each a photograph alternative and an act of solidarity with Somali Islamists influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. The time period “Islamist” describes the will to make use of faith to realize political objectives; it doesn’t indicate piety.
The political Islamists in Somalia — Salafi teams and Muslim Brotherhood-influenced factions corresponding to Damuljadid — sought to seize the state. Türkiye has cast sturdy ties with Damuljadid, to which President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud belongs. In 2013, he appointed a former banker, Ali Abdi Amalow, to hint Somali property held in overseas banks. A few of the funds traced by Amalow and Shulman Rogers, an American legislation agency, had been deposited in a Turkish financial institution. Nevertheless, there isn’t a knowledge out there on Somali property in Turkish banks. Primarily, Türkiye is in cahoots with corrupt Somali federal leaders who misuse Somalia’s sovereignty to serve Turkish imperial pursuits within the Horn of Africa.
Erdoğan goals of reviving the Ottoman Empire on a smaller scale. He sees Somalia, with its sentimental and corrupt federal leaders benefiting from enterprise and political ties with Türkiye’s ruling celebration, as a rustic the place he can challenge middle-power standing. Ethiopia, beneath Abiy Ahmed, equally goals of following the legacy of Emperor Haile Selassie. This imperial nostalgia unites Ethiopia and Türkiye.
Erdoğan overruled the Federal Authorities of Somalia’s choice to exclude Ethiopian troops from the AUSSOM peacekeeping drive working in Somalia. Erdogan pressured President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to incorporate Ethiopian troops within the drive, acknowledge Ethiopia’s “sacrifices in preventing Al-Shabaab,” and lease Somali ports to Ethiopia for industrial functions. Ethiopia has not withdrawn the unlawful maritime Memorandum of Understanding it signed with Somaliland, a secessionist administration, nor acknowledged that this was a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty in its makes an attempt to lease a coastal district in northern Somalia. The Ankara Settlement is a betrayal of the sovereignty of Somalia.
President Hassan Sheikh’s son was placed on trial in Türkiye for careless driving that induced the loss of life of a Turkish citizen. He was driving a car belonging to the Somali Embassy in Türkiye, regardless of having the assets to rent a automotive.
Erdoğan has successfully captured the Somali state by forming ties with corrupt Islamist political elites in Mogadishu. This relationship relies on kleptocratic pursuits and the exploitation of non secular sentiments for hypocritical functions. The bicameral legislature, managed by Villa Somalia, performs a key position in sustaining Somalia as a vassal state of Türkiye.
© Puntland Publish, 2025
