When Recep Tayyip Erdogan rose to power in Turkey two decades ago, he sought to reorient Turkish foreign policy. Gone was the emphasis on Europe and the West, his dalliance with European Union accession notwithstanding. Instead, Erdogan embraced a “zero problems with neighbors” policy, though this stumbled as Turkey’s neighbors resisted Erdogan’s belief that this meant they should subordinate themselves to his whims.
Former Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu next spearheaded a neo-Ottoman drive to revive Turkey’s links to its former colonial territories. The problem here, however, was that Turks remember the Ottoman Empire more fondly than do its subject peoples.
Neo-Ottomanism’s failure did not lessen Erdogan’s desire to play on the global stage and so he turned to Africa. Turkish investment in Africa increased exponentially. Turkish Airlines became dominant in Africa. Turkey built a military base in Somalia, and it planned another one in Sudan before Sudan’s revolution scrapped those plans.
Erdogan spun Turkey as an anti-colonialist crusader standing up for Africans. “Turkey, unlike other colonial powers, has a history in Africa with no dark chapters,” he wrote. Historically, this was nonsense: just ask the victims of the Ottoman slave trade.
Rather than build symbiotic relations, Erdogan’s outreach has been a curse for Africans. While on paper Turkey has invested billions of dollars in partner countries, in reality Erdogan invests not in countries but in leaders. He backs their personal power in exchange for lucrative contracts diverted Turkey’s way. In Somalia, for example, Erdogan supported Mohamed Farmaajo and Farmaajo’s one-time intelligence chief Fahad Yasin, even as they sought to delay elections and extra-constitutionally extend Farmaajo’s term. Turkey even flew Yasin back to Mogadishu after the prime minister fired him for his role in the murder of an employee who knew too much about their illicit schemes. Turkey also smuggled drones into Mogadishu’s airport in the middle of the night to enable Farmaajo to achieve through force what he could not win at the ballot box.
The same has been true in Ethiopia. As Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pushed Ethiopia to the brink of collapse and unapologetically sought to conduct genocide against the country’s Tigray population, Erdogan rushed Abiy drones with which to target Tigrayans and aid workers seeking to help them. Abiy rewards Erdogan for his blind backing with contracts worth billions of dollars. Both Abiy and Erdogan may enrich themselves, but the relationship has been a disaster for ordinary Ethiopians increasingly suffering due to Abiy’s ineptitude.
What Turkey did to Somalia and Ethiopia—destroying the promise of democracy for the material benefit of its leaders—it now seeks for Liberia. By any measure, Liberian President George Weah has been a disappointment. He has failed in his legal requirement to stand up a court capable of trying civil war-era economic crimes for fear that he and his top allies may be among the first on the docket. Corruption runs rampant. In any free and fair election, Weah would lose to the likes of former Coca-Cola executive Alexander Cummings or other challengers.
As pressure began to mount on Weah, Erdogan began courting the Liberian leader. It was an easy match. Weah was a former football star, while Erdogan once aspired to be one. As pressure has increased on Weah to address corruption, Erdogan has offered Weah greater diplomatic support to enable him to resist accountability and perhaps even extend his term. Such an arrangement won’t cost Weah anything, but Liberians will pay the price for the sweetheart deals Turkey seeks.
There is nothing wrong with trade. Quite the contrary; trade is the backbone for development. When trade comes at the expense of transparency or democracy, however, disaster follows. Just ask the Somalis and Ethiopians, tens of thousands of whom are now dead directly because of the deals their dictators struck with Erdogan.
Liberians should be wary. Liberian democracy is fragile. Weah’s legitimacy must rest on the ballot box, not Erdogan’s support. It is time Liberians demand full transparency for all deals Weah negotiates with Turkey and an end to the excuses preventing the inauguration of a court to try economic crimes.
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