By Abdirashid Diriye Kalmoy
Mar 26, 2025 – 12:05 am GMT+3
Türkiye-Ethiopia relations have reached a new peak as Türkiye fostered peace and stability between Somalia and Ethiopia through the Ankara Process
Recently, Türkiye successfully mediated a peaceful negotiation between Somalia and Ethiopia through the Ankara Process. The three rounds of talks have lowered the potentiality of conflict, violence and instability in the Horn of Africa. As a diplomatic masterstroke, Ankara’s efforts have become a panacea to nationalist, imperialist and expansionist ideologies and rhetoric that have engulfed the whole region. A dangerous region-wide war has been abated and a new horizon for mutual peaceful coexistence and cooperation between the two countries has been achieved.
The efficacy of the Ankara Process is credited to Türkiye’s balanced, proactive and pragmatic diplomacy. Türkiye’s diplomatic credibility and trust-building mechanisms, coupled with a realistic approach to the tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia, have led to the fruitful conclusion of the detente between the two countries.
History behind relations
Türkiye’s longstanding diplomatic relations with Ethiopia and its persuasive and influencing capacity played a substantial role in this dispute. However, we must remember that there is a long history behind the bilateral relations. Türkiye’s presence in the Horn of Africa dates back to the Ottoman Empire period. The Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait were a geostrategic capital during the height of the Maritime Empire period in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Portuguese Empire and the Ottoman Empire were engaged in a fierce geopolitical and strategic contest over the region long before the current nation-states emerged.
Due to its strategic interests, the Ottomans, who were then ruling the Hijaz and Yemen, detested the Portuguese presence and influence in the Horn of Africa region. Consequently, the Ottomans supported the Somali, Afari and Harari sultanates of Adal and Ifat against the allied Christian Empire of Portugal and the Abyssinia Kingdom that was nestled in the Habesha highlands. In one of the most consequential historical moments then, in the Futuh al-Habash conquest, the soldiers of Garad Matan armed with Ottoman cannons and matchlock captured and executed Portuguese Gen. Cristovao da Gama near Lake Hashenge on the orders of the sultan, Ahmed Gurrey. The Ottomans played a crucial role in the geopolitics of the region in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Ottoman Adm. Özdemir Pasha captured Massawa (now Eritrea) in 1557 and embarked on constituting the Habesh Eyalet that extended from the Sanjak of Suakin to the Sanjak of Zeila. During the tail-end of the Ottoman Empire, the Harar consulate, built in 1912, was the furthest Ottoman diplomatic post before its collapse and dissolution.
When Italy invaded Ethiopia between 1935 and 1937, the newly founded Turkish republic, which emerged from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, called for and strongly supported sanctions against Italy. Once again, Turkish military advisors supported and coordinated with Ethiopia during its war with Italy.
The official relations between Türkiye and Ethiopia started when the Turkish republic opened its first embassy in sub-Sahara Africa in Addis Ababa in 1926; Ethiopia reciprocated by opening its embassy in Ankara in 1933. During the Italian occupation, which lasted until 1941, the Ethiopian Embassy in Ankara was functioning and was not closed down as it diplomatically lobbied in Europe against the Italian occupation.
In the 1950s and 1960s, both Ethiopia and Türkiye remained diplomatically close as both countries adopted pragmatic and realistic approaches in their relations with the Soviet bloc and the Arab world. However, after the 1974 Derg military coup in Ethiopia in which a Marxist militarist junta took power in Ethiopia, Türkiye suspended ties with Ethiopia. Diplomatic relations recommenced in the early 1990s after the Derg were removed from power and Ethiopia adopted a new constitution. The Turkish Embassy in Addis Ababa was officially reopened in 2006.
Levels of cooperation
Trade and commerce have been the adhesive ingredient between the two countries. Bilateral trade between Ethiopia and Türkiye has grown from $200 million (TL 7.59 billion) to $650 million. More significantly, Türkiye is the biggest investor in Ethiopia, only second to China; Turkish investments in Ethiopia reached $2.5 billion in 2023. Moreover, as of 2023, Turkish exports to Ethiopia reached $465 million.
Small-scale Ethiopian traders are active in Istanbul and import Turkish goods through shuttle trade. Istanbul has become a haven for Ethiopian migrants, who escaped violence and political persecution in their home country and hence constitute one of the largest African diasporas in Türkiye. In ethnographic fieldwork research, I have interviewed many migrants from Oromia and the Somali region and, most recently, refugees from the Tigray region.
More recently, Türkiye deepened ties with Ethiopia after the ruling parties of both countries signed deals to establish close collaborations. The deals envision fostering civil society collaboration and promoting bilateral trade. Party-to-party collaborations are significant since they can potentially align the two governments’ policy orientations and governance models. Ethiopia’s Prosperity Party (PP) can learn from Türkiye’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) electoral legitimacy and that sovereignty belongs to the people – and, more significantly, free and fair elections.
Türkiye and Ethiopia’s historical relations should be predicated on the aspiration for peace and stability not only in Ethiopia but the whole region of the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is a vast country with diverse linguistic, ethnic and religious nations and communities. Like many African countries, Ethiopia has historical and traumatic internal ethnic strife. Supremacist and violent ethnic nationalisms have undermined Ethiopia as a country. Türkiye’s diplomacy and soft power ought to engender democracy, liberties, justice and recognition of cultural rights in the country through programs on post-conflict communal capacity buildings and reconciliations in Ethiopia.
Türkiye’s justice-oriented foreign policy of uplifting historically marginalized communities and peoples is commendable. The Türkiye Bursları scholarship, which has benefited many Muslim and Christian students, has increased the positive image of Türkiye not only in Ethiopia but in the whole region among marginalized communities and peoples. Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) educational programs for children in IDP camps in the Somali region and Oromia, whose education was disrupted by ethnic and communal violence, are significant – and can be extended to differing areas of Ethiopia. As Mukerrem Miftah delineated, this includes “intercultural communication programs; annual animal sacrifice programs for the Muslims’ Eid Al Adha holiday; collaboration for the ‘Harari day’ celebration; restoration of King Nejashi’s tombs and the tombs of the prophet Muhammad’s associates, Nejashi’s Mosque and the restoration of Ottoman’s diplomatic center and the house of Mohammed Ali Pasha in Harar, and others.”
Handling disputes one by one
Türkiye-Ethiopia relations are at their peak as an outcome of the Ankara Process. Nevertheless, the Horn of Africa is a region geopolitically contested for influence and strategic interest by many global superpowers. As a strategic geography, Ethiopia and the whole region receive a lot of interest; France has already jumped into the fray by promising to assist Ethiopia in building its navy.
Hence, Türkiye-Ethiopia relations will be influenced by the geopolitical dynamics in the region. Many countries with which Ethiopia has border disputes also have cordial and long-lasting diplomatic relations with Türkiye. Ipso facto, Türkiye has to walk a tightrope in the region; to be viewed as leaning toward one country will put its diplomatic credibility into disarray. A case in point was during the dispute between Ethiopia and Somalia: Türkiye recognized Ethiopia’s aspirations for a commercial trade route but also stated and emphasized its support for Somalia’s ontological existence and territorial sovereignty.
National and regional stability will benefit all the countries in the Horn of Africa. Recurrent conflicts and violence have ruined lives in Ethiopia. As chauvinist, expansionist and jingoistic rhetoric continues to flare between Ethiopia and Eritrea regarding the port city of Assab, Türkiye can initiate a new Ankara Process to lower tensions in the region – this time between Eritrea and Ethiopia.