Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with the President of Somalia Hasan Sheikh Mahmud to discuss the latest situation between the two countries and the Israeli attacks on Gaza and regional and international issues.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to discuss bilateral relations between Ankara and Mogadishu.
Turkish National Defence Minister Yasar Guler, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir, and the Somali delegation were also present at the meeting.
During the meeting, which was closed to the press at the Dolmabahce Office in Istanbul, the two leaders discussed the Israeli attacks on Gaza and regional and international issues.
TÜRKİYE-SOMALIA RELATIONS
Relations between Türkiye and Somalia have a history dating back to the Ottoman Empire.
The Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu was inaugurated in 1979, closed in 1991 due to civil war, and reopened on 1 November 2011. On 1 June 2014, the Turkish Consulate General in Hargeisa started its operations.
Although the Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu was closed in 1991, Turkey did not remain indifferent to the developments in the country and tried to contribute to the establishment of peace and stability in Somalia.
In order to draw the attention of the international community to the great drought disaster in 2011 and to show our solidarity with the Somali people, the President of the Republic of Turkey H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then Prime Minister, made a historic visit to Somalia in August 2011.
Following this visit, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, the Turkish Red Crescent, and Turkish non-governmental organizations conducted Türkiye’s largest international aid operation. Since then, Turkish humanitarian and technical development assistance to Somalia exceeded 1 billion US Dollars. In this context, development projects in various areas such as health, education, municipal services, and infrastructure have been completed.
President Erdogan visited Somalia twice in 2015 and 2016. During his visit in 2016, Türkiye’s largest Embassy Complex in the world was inaugurated officially in Mogadishu.
President of the Federal Republic of Somalia H.E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmajo) conducted a state visit to Türkiye on 26 April 2017 and attended on 26 April 2018 to the Türkiye-Africa Agriculture Ministers Conference held in Antalya and to the Agriculture Business Forum.
Source: Newsroom
