A Striking Admission from an Israeli Strategist: Turkey, Africa's New Architect

Israeli strategy expert Shay Gal penned a remarkable analysis last month for the France-based Africa Report. The focus of the analysis is what the author calls an "invisible" architecture of power, meticulously built by Türkiye in Africa step by step. Every line Gal writes makes it clear that he struggles to come to terms with Turkey's rise on the continent, which is based on a solid and deep strategy. Indeed, the purpose of the analysis is to discredit Ankara's activities with accusatory terms like "soft colonialism." However, the truths he feels compelled to recount are so concrete and powerful that his pen has, albeit unwillingly, ended up writing the story of Turkey's multi-faceted success. So much so that even an analyst sympathetic to Türkiye could not have depicted this picture so strikingly.

Gal's most notable observation comes right at the introduction of his analysis: Turkey's influence in Africa is no longer limited to UAVs and military agreements. What is truly decisive are the institutions, standards, and symbols that are "quietly reshaping sovereignty." Emphasizing the inadequacy of the common Western narrative that "attributes France's loss of influence to Russian mercenaries," Gal states that the real rival is far more ambiguous and therefore more disconcerting for the West: Türkiye's "invisible power." As he repeatedly points out with concrete examples throughout the text, across the continent, the traces of French trusteeship and cultural codes are being replaced, with immense determination, by Turkish institutions and symbols.

Gal details how this change operates in Somalia as a concrete model: a military base capable of training thousands of soldiers; a port and airport operated under long-term concessions; a national hospital bearing the name of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; and the first foreign bank branch to open in the country in half a century... The Israeli analyst defines all these steps as the "gradual internalization of Turkish identity markers."

This model in Somalia is being replicated with a similar strategy in other corners of the continent. Likewise, in Senegal, it is observed that Turkish companies are one by one replacing French companies and taking a leading role in infrastructure projects.

Ports, airports, hospitals, and public institutions across the continent now bear a Turkish signature. As Gal emphasizes, these agreements are not merely commercial opportunities but strategic steps that weave Ankara into the very fabric of these countries' national identity and sovereignty.

Turkey's architecture of influence extends beyond physical investments into the realm of institutional standards. Gal points to the Halal Accreditation Authority, established in 2017, as an example. He stresses that Turkey's promotion of these criteria in African markets through the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation means directly shaping trillion-dollar food and pharmaceutical supply chains. In this way, Turkey is creating an impact far more permanent and profound than what weapons or short-term credits could provide.

The Israeli strategist also elaborates in detail on how education and religion form another critical layer in Türkiye's Africa policy. He notes that the Maarif Foundation, established in 2016, operates schools teaching the Turkish curriculum and language in over 20 African countries. He interprets the tens of thousands of African students studying at Turkish universities with state scholarships as the "raising of generations more connected to Istanbul than to Paris." This is precisely one of the most important issues worrying Israel and other Western countries: the fact that these young people educated in Turkey return to their countries as cultural ambassadors and, over time, assume strategic positions, playing a decisive role in relations.

The work of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Diyanet Foundation also feature prominently in the analysis. He states that the crescent-and-star flag flies over projects across the continent, from built mosques and opened water wells to established solar panels.

The article does not overlook Türkiye's advances in media and transportation either. Shay Gal writes that TRT Afrika, which began broadcasting in 2023, has become a strong voice on the continent by broadcasting in French, English, Hausa, and Swahili; and that Anadolu Agency shapes the language and perspective of news by training African journalists in Turkish faculties. He also notes that Turkish Airlines, being the only airline with direct flights to over 50 African destinations, particularly to the challenging capitals of the Sahel region, establishes not just a transportation link but also a bridge of influence.

And Shay Gal formulates a very meaningful sentence while summarizing the West's traditional strategy in Africa: "He who controls the roads and the language shapes the perception of events." In essence, the fact that the power shaping the roads, the language, the news, and the education this time is Turkey is causing significant anxiety among all Western countries and other global powers.

Regarding the reputation and symbolic value won by Turkish weapons, especially the Bayraktar TB2 UAVs, on the continent, the author says, "The delivery of Bayraktar TB2s to Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger is staged as a ceremony of regained sovereignty, photos are taken and shared over social networks," and adds: "Leaders award Turkish officials, and the drone becomes a certificate of independence from Paris."

While Türkiye now gains access to ports and air bases that were once exclusively tied to European countries, it is also reinforcing its image as a "reliable partner" by mediating between African countries in dispute. For the first time in history, a power other than the West is shaping Africa's destiny, one that walks side-by-side with the African people.

Summarizing the strategies of global powers in Africa, Gal offers this striking formula: "Education creates loyalty; religion provides legitimacy; infrastructure creates visibility; finance creates dependency; bases protect regimes; and media reshapes perception." Therefore, he interprets Turkey's steps not as "philanthropy" but as "soft control." He attributes Türkiye's success to its skillful exploitation of the grievances left by colonialism and the disappointment with the West. He expresses how Türkiye's warm and egalitarian narrative is replacing the West's arrogant discourse in Africa with these words:

"Erdoğan offers Muslim dignity, historical justice, and unconditional development."

Unable to find classic criticism headings like an arrogant condescension towards Turkey's presence in Africa, colonial one-sided agreements, or human rights violations, the Israeli Gal, reflexively cornered, resorts to ideological and historical accusations: He states that "it is a paradox for Turkey, which denies the Armenian genocide, oppresses the Kurds, and continues its occupation of Northern Cyprus, to present itself as a genuine anti-colonial voice."

In conclusion, it's possible to say that the atmosphere felt throughout the text is more than just a strategy assessment: it is a lament for a world lost to the West. For the story of Africa, written for centuries from a Europe-centric perspective, is today quietly passing to another actor, and the West is feeling the sting of looking at this new picture.

The article's ultimate observation summarizes this situation: "Turkey’s success is largely a product of the deep disappointment felt towards France and the West in general. Turkey has masterfully seized the historic moment when Europe lost confidence in its own narrative of superiority and offered Africa a new, more attractive, and more prideful story."

Following this admission of defeat, the only thing the Israeli strategist can do is to suggest that the solution lies in France regaining Africa's trust to restore its former power. Yet, the architects in Africa are changing. Against the colonial system the West insistently tries to maintain, China's debt dependency and mineral monopolies, Russia's illegal networks via Wagner, or the Gulf states' hardline interventionism, a different partnership model is rising: one independent of the colonial past, respectful of its own cultural and religious codes, stable, inclusive, and based on a win-win axis.

Türkiye is leaving its mark on Africa's rising future not only with the physical structures it builds but also with a genuine and sincere language of partnership.

The permanence of this architecture depends on Türkiye's ability to institutionalize the bonds it is building today, to localize them, and to carry them into the future with a consistent vision.

If managed correctly, Türkiye's presence in Africa could become the name not just of a policy, but (as there are examples in history) of an era.

*Shay Gal is a strategy expert working on Israel's security and Africa policies and a researcher who frequently writes in Israeli newspapers. The full analysis in question can be found at: https://www.theafricareport.com/396552/how-turkiye-built-an-invisible-architecture-of-power-in-africa/

This article was orignially published in Independent Türkçe https://www.indyturk.com/node/768797/t%C3%BCrki%CC%87yeden-sesler/i%CC%87srailli-stratejistten-%C3%A7arp%C4%B1c%C4%B1-bir-itiraf-t%C3%BCrkiye-afrikan%C4%B1n-yeni