Turkey Built Great Influence in Africa. Covid Is Threatening It
For all the success of President Erdogan’s outreach to sub-Saharan countries, right now he can’t give them what they need most.
Just a photo op.
Photographer: Mustafa Kamaci/Anadolu Agency
It is not like Recep Tayyip Erdogan to eschew the spotlight, much less an opportunity to strut on the world stage. And yet, Turkey’s president passed up on pageantry when a pair of West African heads of state paid him court in Istanbul on Jan 30. Erdogan’s meeting with Senegal’s Macky Sall and Guinea Bissau’s Umaro Sissco Embalo took place behind closed doors; afterward, there was little to show for the event other than a few vapid photographs.
Perhaps the absence of pomp was the point. After all, Turkey’s relations with sub-Saharan Africa, once touted as proof of Ankara’s growing international reach, have matured to a point where visits by heads of state require no fanfare. But just as likely, the event was kept on the down-low because Erdogan didn’t have much to offer his visitors.