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Abstract
Turkey is in the process of formulating its new foreign-policy discourse on Sub-Saharan Africa. The emerging discourse is reaching for old themes like Ottomanism and Islamic humanitarianism, and for newer themes such as “the trading-state.” The Turkish experience of Sub-Saharan Africa is not rich, and hence the reliance of actors on themes developed in geographical regions quite other than Sub-Saharan Africa. Typically in the early stages of such discourse, its themes reflect images of the major actors more than the realities. As actors' understanding of a subject area improves, the early themes of a discourse are necessarily adjusted to accommodate the issues that emerge in that area. Adjustment happens also in response to various agents' critical commentaries. It is, therefore, a foregone conclusion that the foreign-policy discourse on Sub-Saharan Africa that has emerged so far will undergo constant adjustment.
Notes
1. Heper, “Islam and Democracy in Turkey,” 32–45.
2. Bacik, “The Turkish Thesis,” 151.
3. Balcı and Miş, “Turkey's Role in the Alliance of Civilizations,” 387–406.
4. Öniş and Yılmaz, “Between Europeanization and Euro-Asianism,” 7–24.
5. Bilgin, “Securing Turkey Through Western-Oriented Foreign Policy,” 121.
6. Yanik, “Constructing Turkish Exceptionalism,” 81. See also Hakan Yavuz, “Turkish Identity and Foreign Policy in Flux,” 19–41.
7. Collins et al., “Prevalence of Mixed-Methods,” 84.
8. Patton, Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, 45–6.
9. Berg, Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, 31.
10. Afacan, “Türk Dış Politikasında Afrika Açılımı,” 17.
11. “Erdoğan Afrika'da konuştu,” Sabah, January 29, 2007.
12. President Gül's Speech, February 18, 2010, www.tccb.gov.tr
13. “Ottoman Dreaming,” The Economist, March 25, 2010.
14. Kizilarslan, “Economic Relations Between Turkey and African Countries,” 19.
15. Tepebaş, Türkiye ve Afrika Ülkeleri Diplomatik, 3.
16. Bülent Aras, “Türkiye ve Afrika,” Sabah, March 3, 2010.
17. Kizilarslan, “Economic Relations Between Turkey and African Countries”.
18. “Ghana is Turkey's Third Largest Trade Partner,” Ghana National Agency, March 25, 2011.
19. Bülent Keneş, “How Deep Does Turkey's African initiative go?” Today's Zaman, December 3, 2010.
20. Abdülhamit Bilici, “Senegal yöresinden bir zeybek,” Zaman, June 4, 2008.
21. President Abdullah Gül's Speech, March 16, 2010, www.tccb.gov.tr
22. To see how a Turkish ambassador phrases a typical apolitical approach, see Turkish Ambassador to Madagascar, Ercümend Ahmet Enç's speech during his inauguration. Accessed June 10, 2012. http://antananarivo.be.mfa.gov.tr/AmbassadorsMessage.aspx
23. Mensah, “China's Foray into Africa,” 96.
24. “Gül Kongo'da,” CNNTurk TV, March 15, 2010, 22.40.
25. Mustafa Ünal, “Kongo'da ilk Türk Cumhurbaşkanı,” Zaman, March 17, 2010.
26. İbrahim Karagülle, “Barbaros'un torunları hangi hesap için gitti?” Yeni Şafak, February 9, 2009.
27. Vahap Munyar, “Biz Avrupalılar gibi hammaddeyi götürmeyiz,” Hürriyet, March 26, 2011.
28. Keneş, “How Deep Does Turkeyã s African initiative go?”.
29. Kirişçi, “The Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy,” 33.
30. Therefore, economy plays a key role in speeches of Turkish ambassadors to Africa. For example, see the speech of Ali Davutoğlu, Turkish ambassador to Tanzania. http://www.darusselam.be.mfa.gov.tr/AmbassadorsMessage.aspx accessed on November 5, 2012.
31. President Gül's Speech at Turkish Nigerian Business Forum, July 9, 2010, www.tccb.gov.tr
32. İbrahim Karagülle, “Türkiye'nin Afrika açılımı, Darfur ve UCM'nin kararı,” Yeni Şafak, March 5, 2009.
33. Vahap Munyar, “Afrika'da okulla girdikleri 35inci ülke Zambiye oldu,” Hürriyet, November 27, 2009.
34. “Gül Kongo'da”, CNNTurk TV, March 15, 2010, 22.40.
35. Ünal, “Kongo'da ilk Türk Cumhurbaşkanı”.
36. Ferai Tınç, “Afrika vizesiz”, Hürriyet, June 5, 2005.
37. Sami Kohen, “Yeni Osmanlılık mı?” Milliyet, November 25, 2009.
38. Zaman, April 28, 2011.
39. Hadi Uluengin, “İkinci iyimser yazı,” Hürriyet, February 25, 2009.
40. İbrahim Öztürk, “Ağlamayı bırakın, yurdışına açılın!” Zaman, May 15, 2008.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Tamer Taşkın is quoted at Zaman, April 28, 2011.
45. Tepebaş, Türkiye ve Afrika Ülkeleri Diplomatik, 18.
46. Faruk Mercan, “Afrika'daki örnek beyaz adamlar,” Aksiyon, April 28, 2008.
47. Zaman, April 28, 2011.
48. Ünal, “Kongo'da ilk Türk Cumhurbaşkanı”.
49. Kavas, Osmanlı Afrika İlişkileri, 7.
50. Ulusoy, “Turkish-Nigerian Relations,” 24.
51. Abdülhamit Bilici, “Türk elçisi yüksekten oturur,” Zaman, February 28, 2009.
52. Karagülle, “Türkiye'nin açılımı … ”
53. Bilici, “Türk elçisi … ”
54. Keneş, “How Deep Does Turkey's African initiative go?”.
55. Nichole Sobecki, “Turkey Seeks Economic Salvation in Africa,” Global Post http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/turkey/090309/turkey-seeks-economic-salvation-africa, March 11, 2009.
56. Öztürk, “Ağlamayı bırakın, yurdışına açılın!”.
57. Ibid.
58. Yavuz, “Turkish Identity and Foreign Policy in Flux,” 24.
59. Yanik, “Constructing Turkish Exceptionalism,” 81.
60. Deringil, “They Live in a State of Nomadism and Savagery,” 341.
61. Payne, “Persuasion, Frames and Norm Construction,” 38.
62. Gokhan Bacik and Alper Y. Dede, “Islam and Turkish Foreign Policy,” Unpublished Paper, 11.
63. Milliyet, August 8, 2010.
64. Fatma Çiftçi, “300 Afrikalı İşadamı Mayıs'ta Türkiye'ye çıkarma yapacak,” Yenişafak, April 3, 2006.
65. CHA News Agency, June 21, 2010, 14.01.
66. Gürkaynak and Taner, “Decision-Making Process Matters,” 43.
67. Baskın, Türk Dış Politikası, 615.
68. Laçiner, “Turkish Foreign Policy Between 1960–1971,” 214.
69. Fırat and Kürkçüoğlu, “Ortadoğu'yla İlişkiler,” 703.
70. Fırat, Ünlü, and Yeşilyurt, “A First Issue Letter from the Editors,” 6.
71. Ibid., 5.
Additional information
Gokhan Bacik is an Associate Professor of international relations at Ipek University, Ankara. Bacik also taught in different European Universities as Erasmus Visiting Professor. He is the author of September 11 and World Politics (2004) and Modern International System: Genealogy, Teleology and the Expansion (2007). He also published in Middle East Policy, International Review of Sociology, The Muslim World, Arab Studies Quarterly, Peace Review, Turkish Studies, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Foreign Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies. His most recent book is Hybrid Sovereignty in the Arab Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, New York: 2008). Bacik is also an associate member of the Turkish Academy of Social Sciences.
Isa Afacan is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Zirve University. He received his PhD from the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University. His areas of research include Turkish foreign policy, American foreign policy, Foreign policy analysis and Middle East.