File Photo/Somali Times
By Professor Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad
My candid advice to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his expected visit to Somalia:
Postpone it until further notice or cancel it altogether.
Time is not right for such a high-level visit. In fact, it can be counterproductive.
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Because right now, there are HUGE anti-Turkish sentiments in Somalia. DON’T BUY WHAT VILLA IS TELLING YOU.
Somalis, including top politicians such as former presidents and lawmakers, have already expressed dissatisfaction with the way Turkey mediated the truce between Somalia and Ethiopia.
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As a big brother Muslim country, Somalis wanted Turkey to side with them and scare away Ethiopia, not to focus on its narrow, short-term interests.
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To Somalis, the Ankara Accord was a big let-down.
Ankara can’t afford to squander its more than a decade of goodwill in thoughtless missteps.
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In the future, Turkey should tread carefully, especially when dealing with the Somalia-Ethiopia dispute. A lot of things can go wrong on this issue.
In fact, if I were Turkey, I wouldn’t have touched that file at all. It is a PR disaster, as each side has favorible expectations from Turkiye.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should know that he is looked upon as a defender of Muslim causes, and, therefore, it will be good to see him live up to that hype.
Turkiye has to learn to take local, Somali context and the wider public sentiments into consideration if it wants its relationship with Somalia to flourish and endure.