TURKEY IS DETERMINED TO REBUILD RUINED SOMALIA
http://www.mareeg.com/turkey-is-determined-to-rebuild-ruined-somalia/
Posted on June 11, 2014
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Somalis, with the help of Turkish institutions, are working to rebuild the
country that was destroyed by decades of war. Infrastructure projects are
transformative but have a long way to go before Somalis truly feel secure
*MOGADISHU — *My colleague and I took a four-day trip to Somali’s capital
Mogadishu to see Turkey’s work in the field. Despite the security problems,
we met with Turkish and Somali officials to obtain information on Turkey’s
facilities and services in the country.
Somalia’s history dates back to the early days of Islam. Ottoman merchants
introduced Islam to Somalis. Historically, the country is the only one in
the world that does not include any non-Muslim community. From north to
south, the people are Sunni Muslims and practice Islam according to the
Shafi’ee school of faith.
The history of Somalia, one of the most prosperous countries of the African
continent, changed after the colonial powers of Germany, Italy, the U.K.
and France came to the region.
Prior to World War I, the colonial powers had entered into a deep struggle
to control the country. Somalia’s strategic position, laying near the
Indian Ocean and fertile lands suitable for massive plantations, attracted
the attention of colonial powers.
The dispute among them destroyed the territorial integrity of the county.
While the northern territories including Djibouti were taken by France, the
southern part, including the current capital Mogadishu, was colonized by
Italy. The colonial period left an extremely heavy burden on the Somali
society. The artificial borders drawn according to the interests of the
colonial powers broke Somalis into groups in neighboring countries,
including Kenya and Ethiopia. The pro-Soviet Union socialist regime,
established in 1969 and collapsed in 1989, contradicted with the centuries-
long traditions and Islamic customs.
Somalia, which was once upon a time one of the strongest and wealthiest
countries in East Africa before the wars with Ethiopia and the civil war,
has been totally destroyed. For decades there was no central government
capable of controlling the country. The tribalism which is prevalent across
the country has created unsolvable problems while civil war broke out among
the tribes which were trying to seize power. In the last decade, as part of
a global movement, allegedly the al-Qaeda linked Bayt al-Shabaab appeared
to control the southern part, attempting to implement a strict religious
jurisprudence system. Al-Shabaab partially gained success in controlling
territories, including, for a brief period, Mogadishu.
The long wars that created the self-claimed independent territories such as
the Somaliland in the northern part of the country as well as the draught
and famine which has turned Somalia into a red zone area according to the
U.N. have left the country without security, infrastructural services,
education and economy.
Despite rich oil, gas and coal reserves, electricity is still scarce in
some areas. Although the lands are fertile and the sea includes thousands
of fish, the people are unable to benefit from these endowments due to war.
In 2011 when the Somalian government made a call to the international
community due to the drought that killed dozens of people, Turkey acted
rapidly to deliver humanitarian aid. The Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) and
the humanitarian aid foundations including Yardımeli and Humanitarian
Relief Foundation (İHH) deployed their teams to deliver desperately needed
essential humanitarian aid to the Somalis.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a visit to the country
with some members of the cabinet and his family. As part of our trip, we
met with the Turkish Ambassador to Mogadishu, Kani Torun, who was appointed
in 2011 and became Turkey’s first Somalian ambassador. Torun said, “As
Turkey our activities focus on three main areas: humanitarian aid, helping
in the development of the country and making financial investments to
consolidate business. We have never ceased to deliver humanitarian aid even
after the U.N.’s international call was over, as the people are still in
need of main nutritional goods and clean water. In terms of development, we
work mainly on four areas: health, education, infrastructure and the
establishment of institutional buildings.”
Turkish Red Crescent officials are divided into two groups. While the first
group delivers humanitarian aid across the country, the second group builds
schools, roads and cleans the streets. Kızılay’s Humanitarian Aid
Delegation president said, “When we arrived here in 2011, we saw people
dying of hunger in the streets.
We have built accommodation centers for the internally displaced people
(IDP) and started the delivery of the food such as biscuits and pasta as
the people needed food so urgently. In the first visit we delivered 10,000
tons of food.” “After the draught and famine were over, we continued our
services. We deliver food to 12,950 people and 38 orphanage centers, four
hospitals and six disabled centers every day.
We make 11,600 loaves of breads every day in our mobile bakeries. In the
accommodation centers we deliver food to 35,000 people. We deliver the aid
to every district in the country.
Due to security problems, Somalis work for Kızılay and we pay them,” he
said. Noting that Kızılay’s services are made by the donations of Turkish
people, Ahi added that “Kızılay spent more than $30 million (TL 62 million)
up to now for humanitarian aid alone. As long as Somalis need us, we will
continue being here, building more hospitals, schools, wells and reach more
people.”
The other president of the Kızılay delegation Goksen Yenigul said, “We have
two kinds of services in Mogadishu which are waste management and producing
urbanization materials.
When we arrived in Mogadishu, the city was full of rubbish as there was no
municipal facility since the war went on for decades. People were living
among trash. From Turkey, we have brought big machines to clean and bury
the trash and turn the areas into roads. We have made barriers in some
areas to prevent floats. We have cleaned 86 km-long roads and the Turkish
companies made them usable. Every day we send our trucks to collect the
rubbish and repair the roads if needed.”
Adding that these services are made possible through the donations of the
Turkish people, he noted “Kızılay has spent more than $20 million.” Yenigul
remarked that Kızılay trains Somali people and teaches them how to work
municipal facilities both technically and administratively as they plan to
leave everything to the Mogadishu municipality before going back to Turkey.
Kızılay officials added that as a part of Turkey’s policy towards restoring
Somalia through training the Somalis, Kızılay will open a school
specializing in fishing.
A Turkish NGO Yardımeli Foundation, which has been in Somalia since 2011,
is building a hospital which will be the biggest gynecology and pediatrics
hospital in Africa. The coordinator Mehmet Citil said, “We are building a
hospital that will be totally free for the people. “Besides the ongoing
hospital construction, we help 1,000 families every month.”
Another Turkish NGO, IHH, has been delivering humanitarian aid to dozens of
people. The NGO has established an orphanage center, hosting 350 children.
Also, a farming school was established to teach students selected from
villages to farm productively.
One of Turkey’s official foundations, the Turkish Cooperation and
Coordination Agency (TİKA) has been serving in the country since 2008.
TİKA’s Somalia branch Chairman Abdulahad Kokdağı said, “Turkey, before the
humanitarian crisis, decided to renovate the Ottoman buildings, as Somalia
has become part of the empire for many years. After the humanitarian crisis
broke out, we decided to establish an office here to carry out services
such as building hospitals, delivering computers to schools and organizing
courses to train professions to the Somalis.”
The delivery of humanitarian aid which started in 2011 and still continues.
Turkish officials said that the Turkish government, especially Prime
Minister Erdoğan himself, closely follow the improvements and the services
offered by Turkey. It is also noted that Somali people are very happy to
see the Turkish presence in the country. The Turkish institutions, despite
small-scaled problems, have been working in cooperation to bear more
fruitful results for restoring the country. Every institution noted that
their works are not bounded with the capital but cover every area in the
country – source
http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2014/06/11/turkey-is-determined-to-rebuil-ruined-somalia
Received on Fri Jun 13 2014 - 20:47:35 EDT