. Ethio-Turkey trade volume should increase to $1 billion per year
Huge potential for growth in Horn of Africa
EH: Honorable Ambassador, first of all, thank you for your time and cooperation for this interview. Can you please give us a short brief about yourself?
Ambassador Alp: My name is Yaprak Alp. Currently I am the Ambassador of Turkey to Ethiopia and to the African Union. I entered the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1995. I worked in Brussels for a very long time at our mission to the European Union. I was in Geneva as well, working for our mission to the United Nations. I had also worked for two years as a younger diplomat in Kyiv, Ukraine. And this is my first appointment as Ambassador. It’s a huge honor for me to be posted to this very important country at this point in time where many people are watching, when many important things are happening in Ethiopia.
EH: Evidences show that it is one of the most visited country in the world. Could you tell us few points concerning Turkey’s tourism development?
Ambassador Alp: Turkey has been a huge tourist destination for many years now and we have a lot of experience in this issue. It would be wonderful to also share this experience with Ethiopia, which also has incredible historic and cultural treasures to show the world. Turkey is a tourism destination in many ways. Historically, the amount of historical, ancient cities and ruins that have been maintained and restored are innumerable. The sights of Turkey all throughout the country are incredible to see. From the Aegean to the Mediterranean Coasts and in the depths of Anatolia lie many treasures.
For example, Capaddocia which is in Central Anatolia is a unique geographic formation where many religious edifices also lie. There is no other example in the world. The mountains of the Black Sea provide wonderful hiking opportunities. Health tourism in Turkey is also on the rise. The standards of our hospitals are very advanced now and the prices are very competitive. Many people from all over the world prefer to go to Turkish hospitals for their treatment.
I hope that we can also increase the number of Ethiopians who choose to trust their care to Turkish hospitals. And of course, Turkey has the jewel of Istanbul, a vibrant and cosmopolitan great city with its deep history and culture that should be experienced by all.
EH: From your rich experience, could you tell us how to keep indigenous heritages, historical places and other attractions in order to make them best tourism sites and transfer them to posterity?
Ambassador Alp: It is very important to maintain and protect our historical heritage for future generations. Turkey is conscious of the responsibility it has in preserving the treasures on its territory. The Ministry of Culture along with various universities have been working on restoring the ancient cities and artifacts that the numerous civilizations left behind in Anatolia. More and more neighborhoods in towns across Turkey are now showing off their newly restored historical centers with their buildings, mosques, churches and fountains. I am happy for the future generations who will also be able to benefit from the beauty their ancestors left behind.
EH: What are your priority areas that you have to work during your stay in Ethiopia as part of furthering the Ethio-Turkish diplomatic relations?
Ambassador: Relations between Turkey and Ethiopia are not just deep, but they are very wide. So we have rich relationship in many different areas. That obviously brings with it a great workload. Number one, politically, I think mutual dialogue at the highest levels is always very important to keep understanding between countries alive. So we are hoping to have many high level visits in the near future. This is very important because both countries are likeminded on many regional and international issues.
Turkey in Ethiopia needs to continue to keep talking to each other in order to be able to cooperate and fight against the challenges that they are both facing on the global stage. Second, the humanitarian aspect of our relations is very important. We have our development cooperation agency here called TIKA. It has already been doing a lot in Ethiopia since 2005 when it was first opened as the first TIKA office in sub-Saharan Africa. We have restored many cultural artifacts like the ones we were talking about before, such as the King Negash (Al Nejashi) Tomb and the Ottoman consulate in Harar.
And we have also been working very hard to bring aid to places that need it most in Ethiopia, in terms of humanitarian aid. We will continue to work on this issue in line with the requirements of the Ethiopian Government. Third, more than 50 Ethiopian students a year receive scholarships from Turkey to study in our country as undergraduates, master and postgraduate students. We are now increasing this number.
These students who go to Turkey and then come back to Ethiopia to transfer the knowledge they have acquired form a bridge of cooperation between the two countries. We also have the Turkish education institute called the Maarif Foundation. The Foundation is currently operating schools in 21 African countries. There was an attempted coup that took place in 2016 in Turkey by the Fetullah Gulen terrorist organization. They unfortunately still have schools in Ethiopia that are functioning. We were given reassurances from Ethiopia that they would be closed and handed over to the Maarif Foundation so that students could continue their education without any interruption whatsoever.
We are confident that the Ethiopian authorities will soon implement this decision. Fourth on the list are cultural relations. Turkish and Ethiopian people have a lot of cultural similarities. They share the same respect for elders. They share the same respect for family. Maybe it is due to these cultural similarities that Turkish TV series are also very popular in Ethiopia. So we want to organize more cultural events here such as concerts, film festivals. And we also want to establish a Turkish cultural center in Addis Ababa. We are talking about this with the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we hope to be able to do that this year.
EH: How do you see the current level of Ethio-Turkish relationship?
Ambassador Alp: I just spoke of the various aspects of Turkish-Ethiopian relations but I waited to discuss the economic and trade relations separately. This is maybe the most vibrant part of our relations currently. Turkey is now the second biggest investor in Ethiopia with 2.5 billion US dollars of investment and with more than 150 Turkish companies. New companies continue to invest. A Turkish water company opened three weeks ago. Just last week, a Turkish cable company invested with a 40 million USD new factory.
Turkish investors continue to arrive because they know that Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. And that it offers great potential for growth. But what I want to say, and this is very important for us, is that these Turkish companies do not just come here for business. Of course they aim to earn profits, but it’s not just about that. For example, they offer great employment. Almost 30,000 Ethiopians are employed by Turkish firms.
They bring machinery from Turkey. So they bring technology, they provide vocational training onsite for Ethiopians, thus increasing the know-how of Ethiopians. They make exports on behalf of Ethiopia, therefore increasing the exports of Ethiopia. They are very socially responsible. So they also care about the communities in which they live. So they, for example, build local roads, restore bridges. They make sure that the children of workers are also taken care of.
We hope that Ethiopia keeps supporting Turkish investment in the country because we would like to see it increased even more. However, our trade level is not where we want it to be. The aim of Turkey and Ethiopia was to increase trade to $1 billion per year. But in terms of 2018, it was only 355 million USD. Turkey’s suggestion is to have a preferential trade agreement between Turkey and Ethiopia, which would increase trade. It always does so in our experience. We believe in free trade and we know that Ethiopia does too. So we want to start these negotiations once again on the preferential trade agreements, in order to increase trade in a balanced manner.
EH: What is the interest of Turkey in Ethiopia?
Ambassador Alp: The Turkish interest lies in history first of all. In 1896 the first diplomatic envoys were exchanged under Emperor Menelik II and Sultan Abdulhamid II. Then in 1912, Turkey opened its consulate in Harar, which we have just restored quite beautifully. In 1926, Turkey opened its first embassy in sub-Saharan Africa in Addis Ababa. Furthermore, Turkey and Ethiopia are like-minded in many of the important issues that the world is facing today. The fight against terrorism, our open door for refugees… We both host a huge number of refugees and we are both very hospitable people.
We share the fact that we are very important actors in our regions, where we are both facing many challenges. And we are both multicultural countries, countries of tolerance. So these are the basic reasons why we understand each other and find it easy to cooperate with one another.
EH: How do you think is that global powers can positively impact the peace and security of the Horn of African Region?
Ambassador Alp: Because of its proximity to the Middle East and to the Gulf, the Horn of Africa in general has always attracted the interest of everybody around the world. It’s a place of huge geostrategic importance. Now everybody realizes that there’s a huge potential for further growth in the Horn of Africa. Like the countries of the Horn of Africa, on the global stage we are all facing the same challenges such as terrorism, irregular migration, internal conflicts, climate change, population growth, etc. And no one can deal with these alone in our globalized world. We need to help each other face these challenges.
EH: Now, the politics of the Horn of Africa is changing following the Ethio-Eritrean peace agreement. What could your country contribute to sustain peace in the region?
Turkey attaches great importance to the stability, peace and prosperity of the Horn of Africa. We are happy to see that positive changes have been occurring between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Reconciliation efforts are increasing with many states in the region, also due to the efforts of Ethiopia. We think that regional solidarity is very important and that this should continue to be strengthened. Turkey is present here in the Horn of Africa. We have Embassies in every single one of the Horn of Africa countries and we are very heavily invested in all of them.
And we’re always open for more support in the ways that the Horn of Africa countries would like us to support them. EH: What do you comment on the recent Eritrean accusation of Turkey, Qatar and Sudan of working to obstructing the peace process and positive developments in the ties between Eritrea and Ethiopia in particular and the whole Horn of Africa region in general? Ambassador Alp: We are saddened to note the baseless allegations about Turkey in a press statement dated 3 April 2019, by the Ministry of Information of Eritrea.
We believe that these statements arose out of misinformation. As one of the strategic partners of Africa, Turkey maintains its multidimensional cooperation with the African countries and attributes great importance to the security and stability of the Continent. Our appreciation of the normalization process between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the developments towards the stability of the Horn of Africa has been made public on various occasions.
EH: What do you think is special about Turkey? How do you describe it?
Ambassador Alp: Turkey has always been known as a bridge between East and West. And this is valid regarding many issues. Culturally, we are able to understand both the East and the West. Historically we have been a part of the East and the West. We have influenced both of them and we have received influences from both of them. That’s why Turkey is such a rich mosaic. We have had many civilizations passing through Anatolia and they have all left their incredible heritage behind. So, when you come to Turkey, one day, one week, one month is never enough.
You must come back to experience all that, for example, the Hittites, the Phrygians, the Seljukides, the Ottomans left thousands and hundreds of years ago. What makes Turkey unique is the blend of so many harmonious tolerant exchanges. We are lucky. We are a European country; we are an Asian Country, we are a Black Sea country; we are a Mediterranean country; we are a Balkan country. But in the end, we are a unique and harmonious country that wishes Ethiopia all the best.
EH: Thank You Honorable Ambassador
Ambassador Alp: My pleasure.
The Ethiopian Herald, May 12/2019
BY HAFTU GEBREZGABIHER
