Somalia’s strategic position and Türkiye’s dream to penetrate the Horn of Africa

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, these days the Turkish authorities to They are regularly meeting with their counterparts in different countries of the African continent. Turkey’s latest action in this area is the signing of a new agreement with Somalia. The signing of this agreement will help Erdogan’s government to have new possibilities in the way of penetration in the Horn of Africa and access to oil resources. Turkey published a message on the X social network and announced its meeting with the Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources of Somalia, Abdul Razzaq Omar Muhammad. signed a memorandum of understanding and an intergovernmental agreement.

Biragdar wrote: “In order to expand bilateral cooperation in the field of oil and gas in the onshore and offshore blocks of Somalia, in a meeting with Abdul Razzaq Omar Mohammad, we signed a memorandum of understanding and an intergovernmental agreement. Based on this agreement, from now on we will carry out joint activities so that the people of Somalia can benefit from their resources. We intend to strengthen Turkey’s presence in the Horn of Africa by increasing the amount of new cooperation in the field of energy”.

This agreement was signed under the conditions that Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, President of Somalia, recently In his official visit to Ankara, he said: “We started consultation with Turkey about intergovernmental cooperation in the field of hydrocarbon resource exploration in Somalia. In this direction, we are still at the initial stage of the dialogue and we want to work together”. and the ministers were able to prepare the agreement documents for signing very soon based on the same meeting.

For a long time, Somalia has longed for a large harvest of oil fields, and oil exploration operations began in the 50s before the start of the civil war in this country. . But it still has not been able to start mass production of oil and gas.

Furthermore, there was a long and long legal battle for the operation of an American company in Somalia, which did not come to fruition either. Apparently, the political and security conditions are not ready for oil exploration in Somalia, and there is a kind of national and public sensitivity regarding cooperation with foreigners in the field of oil and gas.

The extent of this sensitivity is limited that the former President of the Republic of Somalia, Muhammad Abdullah Muhammad, known as Farmajo, canceled the government’s oil agreement with an American company two years ago.

Coastline Exploration Company was supposed to ) America to work for joint production in seven offshore oil fields in Somalia. But the president’s firm opposition broke the agreement. This was the same agreement that was signed by the Minister of Oil of Somalia in 2022, but the newspapers mentioned it with phrases such as “alien occupation of Somalia” and “treason in the name of looting the wealth of future generations” and working with the said company It did not come to an end.

Richard Anderson, CEO of this company, announced that according to his fellow experts, Somalia has the largest undiscovered fields in warm waters in the world.

Some preliminary geological research has shown that Somalia is probably one of the oil powers and has oil and gas reserves of 30 billion barrels. It has even been said that the oil reserves of Somalia are three times that of Nigeria and equal to the amount of oil reserves of Kuwait. , continuous work in a period of 3 to 5 years is necessary.

It is interesting that the president of Somalia is not willing to speak decisively about his country’s reserves and said: “Today there is a lot of information There is good news about Somalia’s hydrocarbon potential. But this amount of information is not enough for us. Turkey is a very advanced country in terms of technology, science and technical expertise. We trust the Turkish government. We also trust Turkish companies as partners and we intend to cooperate in the field of research and exploration”.

Turkey and The sweet dream of the Horn of Africa

The country of 85 million people, Turkey, has an important geopolitical position in the region. On the one hand, it is the gateway to the West and on the other hand, the gateway to the East.

From a security point of view, as an important member of NATO, it controls the Bosphorus and Dardanelles and It plays an important role in the security of the Black Sea, Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.

But the most important Achilles heel of this country is the deprivation of oil and gas resources. The amount of oil and gas imports in Turkey exceeded one hundred billion dollars in 2023, and as a result of the economic crisis in this country, it became deeper and wider. As a result, it is of vital importance for Turkey to engage in oil exploration operations in the eastern Mediterranean and parts of Africa. But at the same time, the presence in the Horn of Africa is also very important for Ankara. The presidential body and Turkish space agency, the best place for Turkey to establish a rocket launch station is nowhere but Somalia. Space research experts believe that Turkey’s main reason for targeting Somalia is the country’s proximity to the equator.

Somalia’s important geopolitics

Somalia is located in the east of the African continent, located in a region known as the Horn of Africa, and in this respect, compared to other African countries, It has a privileged position for Turkey. Somalia borders the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean to the east, Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, and Kenya to the southwest.

This unstable African country with 16 million people Population and with an area of ​​637,540 square kilometers, it is the easternmost country in Africa. Turkey’s largest overseas military base called “Trexum” was opened in Somalia in 2017 and its construction took two years and 50 million dollars were spent.

Turkey continues to develop relations with African countries and currently It has opened embassies in 44 countries of this continent.

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