Ugandan Ambassador to Turkey His Excellency Stephen Mubiru, Uganda Embassy First Secretary Julius Mwijutsya, Zimbabwe Ambassador to Turkey His Excellency Alfred Mutiwazuka and South Sudan Ambassador to Turkey His Excellency Majok Guandong were our guest at the barbecue event. We had a very comprehensive and in-depth exchange of views and a pleasant conversation on ways to resolve global and regional disputes through peaceful means such as mediation.

African Embassies

Managing Partner, Atty. Prof. Dr. Vahit Bicak states that “developing our cooperation in all  areas of law with the countries of Africa is among our priorities. Whether it is on law, health, infrastructure development, climate change or digitalisation, the world needs to work together to get things done. As part of our Africa initiative, we adopted a more dynamic approach in our relations with African Embassies“. 

Enormous continent

Africa is an enormous continent which has vast deposits of oil, gas and minerals like cobalt, gold and diamond as well as agricultural products like palm oil, cacao, tea, coffee and vanilla, which are all necessary raw materials for industrial productions. Accommodating more than 1.3 billion people, the continent is very dynamic in nature, and its market size expands parallel to the rise of its demographics and the purchasing power of its middle classes.

Interaction between Turkey and African countries

Nowadays, we are witnessing quite a dynamic and intense interaction between Turkey and African countries in terms of trade, business and diplomacy. Turkey’s trade volume with the African continent exceeded 60 billion US Dollars, In the last five years, there have been more than 500 high-level visits to Africa from Turkey. To promote trade relations between Turkey and African countries, Turkey organises Turkey-Africa economic and business forums periodically in partnership with the AU in order to regulate and develop trade relations between Turkey and the continent. 

Africa is more visible now in Turkey as well and African business people, students, tourists and immigrants are storming Turkey in large numbers. Somali, Sudanese, Libyan, Egyptian, Tunisian, Algerian, Senegalese and Nigerian communities in the big cities of Turkey have become more visible nowadays. Moreover, the number of African embassies in Ankara has gone from 10 in 2008 to 37 in 2021.