By: Turkmen Terzi
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has visited the African continent more frequently than any other non-African leader, has begun interfering in regard to the domestic affairs of Africa. Erdogan called Tunisian President Kais Saied dissolution of parliament a “smearing of democracy” and “a blow to the will of the people”.
Al Jazeera reported that Saied told foreign minister Othman Jarandi that he rejected “all interference in any form” in Tunisian affairs, without directly mentioning Erdogan. Tunisia however, did summon a Turkish envoy following Erdogan’s comments. Of course, Erdogan once said that “Democracy is like a tram.
You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off” cannot claim to be concerned with the threat to democracy but his concern lies rather in Tunisia’s leading Islamist party, Ennahda.
The party’s co-founder and parliamentary speaker, Rached Ghannouchi is also a close ally of Erdogan’s regime and the Northern African country is of strategic importance to Turkey’s military operations in Libya.
“I made contact with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, and the ambassador of Turkey was summoned. I informed them that Tunisia rejected President Erdogan’s statement and considered it interference in Tunisian affairs, that the relations of the two countries should be based on respect for the independence of the national decision and the choices of the Tunisian people alone, and that our country does not allow questioning of its democratic path.”
Tunisian Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi stated in response to the Turkish government via Twitter on April 6.
Tunisia’s leading Annahda which came to power in 2011 is the only political party in the MENA region that has managed to lead an elected government, with a single exception of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Tunisia is a predominantly secular
country and the AKP grasped a big opportunity by establishing strong ties with the Ennadha-let Troika government in 2012 and 2013, following the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled the country from 1987 to 2011. During this period, many Turkish diplomats, AKP leaders, and pro-Erdogan NGOs flocked to Tunisia. Turkey and Tunisia signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 2011 and established a High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council in 2012.
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Yunus Emre Institute began their activities in the country. Turkey and Tunisia’s bilateral trade had reached over one billion dollars by 2020.
Besides mining, energy, food and agriculture, defence has become Turkey’s primary area of export to Tunisia in recent years. The Tunisian Ministry of Defence signed a contract with Turkish Aerospace Industries for the purchase of unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) in 2020. During this year alone, Tunisia ordered 240 million dollars worth of UAVs from Turkey, after rejecting a similar deal with Paris.
The days of glory were, however, short-lived for Ennahda as secular parties came to power in 2014 and the AKP then began addressing the issue of foreign policy with Tunisia in a more balanced manner.
Erdogan congratulated Beji Caid Essebsi, the founder of Nidaa Tounes, for his victory in the presidential election. Nidaa Tounes is the secular party that won both the presidential as well as parliamentary election in 2014 and the election results changed the balance in Tunisian politics in favour of secularist parties.
Despite Turkey’s efforts to keep good relations with Tunisian leaders,secularists in the country have grown increasingly critical of the
Erdogan government in recent years. AFP quoted the Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Baccouche on February 25, 2015, as saying that Turkey is facilitating the transit of fighters bound for neighbouring Syria and Iraq, where thousands of its citizens have joined the ranks of jihadist groups.
The Ennahda Party has long received criticism from the seculars over receiving foreign funding. Moreover, the party’s co-founder and speaker of the dissolved parliament, Rached Ghannouchi faced harsh criticism over not having informed relevant Tunisian authorities of a visit to Turkey to meet Erdogan in January 2020.
Tunisia is currently grappling with its biggest political crisis in over a decade as 116 members of the Tunisian parliament held an online session on 30 March to cancel all decisions and decrees issued by Saied since July 25, 2021, Erdogan is meanwhile backing Ghannouchi to keep Tunisian Islamists in the parliament. Erdogan’s deteriorating relationship with Tunisia’s secular rulers has put Turkey’s investments in the Northern African country at risk. Tunisia imposed new customs duties on Turkish products in 2018 after Tunisia’s trade deficit with Turkey doubled since 2010. The power shift in Tunisia has become an increasingly worrying matter for the Erdogan regime not only in that Turkish investments are at risk but also because it puts Turkey’s involvement in neighbouring Libya at risk. Turkish forces backed the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) of Libya in the Second Libyan Civil War in January 2020 against France and UAE backed Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA). Since Turkey prevented Haftar’s forces from entering Tripoli, the Turkish military and economic activities have increased especially in GNA controlled areas that border Tunisia.
Islamist Erdogan already lost two close allies in the MENA region in Islamist Mohamed Mursi who was toppled by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013 as well Sudan’s Islamist leader Omar Al-Bashir who was ousted by the Sudanese Armed Forces in April 2019. Erdogan is
trying hard to prevent a political ban on his ally Ghannouchi’s Ennahda in Tunisia as Ankara considers Tunisia an ally in the eastern Mediterranean against its rivals France, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
Tunisia has also become an entry point for Turkey’s involvement in the Maghreb and West Africa. No matter how hard Erdogan tries, it seems that he is likely to lose a political ally in Tunisia, as he did in Egypt and Sudan.
* Turkmen Terzi is a Turkish journalist based in Johannesburg