Uganda has a historical relationship with the people of Turkey since the Ottoman Empire

By Sedef Yavuzalp

On Tuesday, October 22, 2018, the Turkish Ambassador to Uganda, Sedef Yavuzalp, addressed an annual Turkey-Uganda Humanitarian and Forum organised by the Turkey Friendship Association at the Lugogo UMA Conference Hall. Below is her address


Mwasuze Mutya (Good morning)

Dear NGO representatives and media members, Nsanyuse Okubalaba (I am happy to see you). It really is a pleasure for me to be addressing such an important audience. In fact this will most probably be one of my last addresses to you as I will shortly be leaving my second beloved home Uganda after a five year term as ambassador. So what have we accomplished in these five years here? Before going on with our topic, allow me to mention briefly: Turkish President Erdoğan together with his cabinet ministers and over 200 businessmen, academics, journalists paid an official visit to Uganda.

My President received from Makerere University a Doctor of Laws Degree in recognition of his distinguished contribution to serving humanity, transformation of Turkey and nation states across the globe, peace keeping and state building programmes at national and international levels and his partnership in the development of Uganda. It was the first highest level visit since the 19th Century (since Emin Pasha was here), he is the first ever head of State from Turkey to visit Uganda.

During the visit, the two governments have signed over 10 agreements and many more when you count the agreements signed between the municipalities, business people, universities etc. Many reciprocal ministerial and parliamentary visits have taken place. We did a lot of work with the Turkish investors in order to start work in the agricultural and contracting areas. TİKA Office has been opened last year in Uganda. The Coordinator will shortly brief you on their work. Turkish NGOs are active here and together with government agencies have carried out millions of Dollars worth of projects in recent years.

Yunus Emre Cultural Institute (there are only a handful in the African continent and Uganda should be among those) we hope will also open its Representation in the upcoming period, as we have come to the conclusion of our negotiations. For this academic year we are awarding Turkey scholarships to 53 Ugandan students at masters and PhD levels (accommodation, cash allowance and school fees are paid by our government). Now I will go on to mention to you about Turkey's enterprising and humanitarian foreign policy, and the very positive and benevolent roles Turkey has assumed globally in the recent decades: Turkey takes concrete initiatives to promote stability and prosperity in its region and beyond. She is an actor, who aims to enhance her ties and co-operation with all partners for peace, security, stability and prosperity. Turkey has a co-operation-oriented understanding based on mutual respect and a win-win approach.

The priorities of Turkey's foreign policy incorporate: v Strengthening regional security and stability

- Fight against terrorism

- Protecting the rights of Turkish citizens

- Deepening our strategic ties

- Enhancing trade networks and energy security

- Strengthening our ties with all geographies

- Cooperation within regional and international organizations

- Improving our soft power

COUNTERING TERRORISM: Turkey has played a key role in countering violent extremism in the world. Turkey and the US initiated global Counter-terrorism Forum (GCTF) in 2011. We chaired it for five years. We also co-chaired the Horn of Africa Working Group together with the EU. Turkey participates actively in the anti-DAESH coalition and its Foreign Terrorist Fighters Working Group (co-led by Turkey) and the Counter-Finance WG. We believe that in the fight against terrorism, also the root causes of terrorism have to be addressed.

The Syrian conflict now in its eighth year, led to the loss of half a million of lives. The conflict created five million refugees and 6 million internally displaced persons. Terrorist groups such as DAESH and PYD/YPG found fertile ground. Turkey wishes to see a stable, peaceful, prosperous Syria with political unity and territorial integrity. Through our Operations Olive Branch and Operation Euphrates Shield we have cleansed the northwest Syrian Afrin and northern regions as well as the Iraqi borders of terrorists and allowed for the return of the real owners of these towns back to their homes. In Syria we liberated 2400 square KM from terrorist groups and 260, 000 Syrians returned to their homes. In Iraq we are helping to rebuild the country.

We have pledged $5m, a figure much higher than the other countries during the Conference in Kuwait. We continue to calm the situation on the ground and end the conflict in Syria. The Astana meetings caught progress on the ceasefire, implementation of the de-escalation memorandum, and adoption of confidence-building measures. We are countering and eliminating the remnants of FETO terrorism both in our country, as well as abroad. Many countries have understood the dangers of this armed criminal and terrorist group. They have taken steps to eradicate and outlaw the members and organisations of this group. It is at the same time a puppet intelligence organisation that tries to control the countries' bureaucracies where it is resident. FETO unfortunately is also resident in Uganda through its schools, hospital and three associations. We need to work together to eradicate it from this country, as it constitutes a real threat to your nation. Mediation Turkey assumes active roles in prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts through mediation.

Underlining the importance of the UN Reforms for maintaining equal sovereignty of states, we together with Spain, launched the Alliance of Civilizations with the objective of countering the atmosphere of mutual mistrust, fear and polarization between the Islamic world and the West. UN Alliance of Civilizations Initiative reached 146 members. Within this context, Turkey is also one of the Co-Chairs of the Group of Friends at the UN. Turkey and Finland spearhead the Mediation for Peace initiative within the UN. The Group of Friends of Mediation now has reached 56 members. We also co-chair a similar group within the OSCE. We hosted the Istanbul Conferences on Mediation in 2012, 2013, 2014.

The fourth one was last year. As Summit Chair of the OIC we hosted the very First OIC Member States Conference on Mediation in Istanbul in 2017. Humanitarian Diplomacy Turkey has been the leading actor in humanitarian diplomacy with its focus on the human cause and through its official development and humanitarian aid. In other terms, Turkish President Erdoğan and the Turkish people have - championed the well-being of the migrants that have come to Turkey or have been returned to Turkey from many European countries. Turkey is currently hosting more than four million refugees (3.5 million are Syrians) in the best possible way. In some places in Turkey, there are more migrants than Turkish people. We have spent $32b on the welfare of the refugees. At present, Turkey is the number one (1) ranked country for Overseas Development Aid in terms of ratio to GDP (0.85 %) and is ranked first also in absolute terms of giving Development Assistance especially to the Balkans, Central Asia and Caucasus, and African countries. According to the OECD, Turkey's ODA amounted to USD 8.142 billion in 2017. (Humanitarian assistance has the biggest share in our ODA-7.2 billion). Thus Turkey was the biggest humanitarian aid donor worldwide in 2017, surpassing the US.

POLICY ON REFUGEES: Turkey has been pursuing an open door policy for Syrians who had to flee their country in the past 7 years. 3.5 million Syrians are hosted in Turkey. Of these 230.00 live in temporary protection centers. Although Turkey has spent $32b (including NGOs and municipalities), the total amount of contribution we received from the rich countries of the international community is far from meeting the expectations: 526 million internationally, plus 1.9 billion Euros from the EU.

Turkey is the biggest host country (with more than four million refugees) according to UN Refugee Agency. More than 600.000 students continue their education in Turkey. Schooling rate is 97 %. Also 20.000 Syrian students are in University in Turkey. Turkey hosted the 1st ever World Humanitarian Summit in 2016. This also indicates our wish to be the leading actor in the world on humanitarian issues.

PALESTINE: We also take the lead on the Palestinian issue in international fora. We draw the world's attention to the plight of the Palestinians more than any other country. In the UN and in the OIC Turkey has spearheaded resolutions with a very high support from the international community on the Palestine issues. We were the main sponsor of the ‘Status of Al Quds al Sharif' resolution which was adopted on 21st December 2017 in the UN General Assembly. Similarly the resolution on the ‘Protection of the Palestinian civilian population' was adopted overwhlemingly in the Palestinians' favour on 13 June 2018 in the UN General Assembly. Similar resolutions have been adopted in the OIC, under the leadership of President Erdoğan. In the Balkan countries we want the region to be one of stability and economic prosperity. Our investments only in one country Albania reaches $2.5b. To sum up, Turkey with its growing means and capabilities and very influential soft power, pursues an enterprising and humanitarian foreign policy all over the globe.

ECONOMY: Turkey is a G-20 member. Turkey is the 17th largest economy in the world and the 5th largest economy in Europe in terms of GNP by PPP. GDP: USD 851 billion (2017) GDP growth: % 7.4 (2017) GDP per capita USD: USD 10.597 (2017) FDI Inflow: USD 10.8 billion (2017) export- 157 billion and import- 233.7 billion 5 Tourism: 32.4 million visitors and 26 billion USD revenue (2017) As of 2016 total sales in the aeronautics and defense industry sector: turnover $6 billion; $2 billion of exports in critical defense industry products. Turkey has the fifth largest global network of foreign missions abroad which has reached 240. The foreign missions in Turkey reached 269. TİKA: 61 Coordination Offices in 59 countries. Turkish Airlines: flights to 299 cities, 302 destinations in 120 countries.

Yunus Emre Institutions: 54 cultural centers in 43 countries In Uganda, 55 projects worth 10 million USD in recent times.

TURKEY'S CONTRIBUTION TO AFRICA: OPENING TO AFRICA POLICY: Turkey is one of the only countries which has placed a great emphasis on contributing to Africa in recent years. We are an observer and strategic partner of the African Union. Turkey has focused on African countries under the Turkish G20 Presidency pushing for their voices to be heard globally, just as Turkey is doing in the UN. We have done significant work in Somalia on drought, famine, and state building and building of security forces of Somalia through training in the recent years.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's courageous visit to Mogadishu in August 2011 at the height of the famine and his decision to open an Embassy gave fresh impetus to efforts to establish lasting peace. While 15 years ago we only had 12 embassies in the whole continent, today the number has risen to 41. African embassies in Ankara rose from 10 to 33. We organized Turkey-Africa Summits in 2008 and 2014 we also hosted Several Somalia conferences and summits as well. We strengthened our relations with the continent through TİKA; Yunus Emre Institute, Maarif Foundation, THY, Anatolia News Agency etc. Turkey Scholarships have been extended to 5000 students from more than 50 countries.

The direct investments into Africa reached over 6.2 billion Dollars recently. Our trade volume on the whole continent reached almost 21 billion USD in 2017 (7.1 billion in subSaharan Africa) 6 Turkey is against all forms of neo-colonialism. We would like to contribute to value addition to Africa's underground resources, in order to increase their export revenues, employment and economic development. Thus, Turkey desires to have win-win relationships with African countries.

CONTRIBUTION TO UGANDA: Uganda has a historical relationship with the people of Turkey since the Ottoman Empire. Today, the government and the people of the Republic of Turkey are involved in activities aimed at uplifting the standards of the people of Uganda. These include availing education scholarships to Ugandans. Since 2010 a minimum of more than 50 Ugandans are offered scholarships annually to study in different fields in Turkey. The Turkish government has contributed towards the renovation and where necessary expansion of vocational centers etc. We would like to spearhead poverty eradication in Uganda by encouraging Turkish investment in agriculture, value addition and infrastructure development. Farmers were taken to Turkey for training in modern farming techniques.

 In 2013, the government of Turkey donated Radio Equipment to Uganda Muslim Supreme Council to establish Bilal FM. Journalists have been taken to Turkey for training in media. Building the capacity of the police and the UPF through training and provision of equipment has also been done. Improving people's livelihood by providing access to safe water supply and contributions towards humanitarian causes such as landslides, or food insecurity victims, support to the health sector has been through the provision of health equipment and ambulances to various Health Centers in rural areas, as well as continued support to orphanages and other crisis centers are among our contributions. But these are only a few examples. Overall we have been donating in various ways and through other projects millions of Dollars to Uganda, and this figure is rising each year. Thank you for your attention.

The writer is the Ambassador of Turkey