World Bulletin / News Desk

African countries are interested in Turkey after many Turkish projects and investments launched in the continent.

Turkey did not limit its activities with political or economic aims but contributed to African countries to develop in the fields of health, education and agriculture.

Having spent his carreer mostly in African countries, retired Turkish Ambassador, Numan Hazar told AA that after Ottoman era, Turkey did not really have any dialogue with African countries.

Numan Hazar added except the visits of former Turkish President Cevdet Sunay's to Ethiopia and former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's to Nigeria, there were very little connections between Turkey and African countries which are on the south of the Sahara.

Hazar noted that cultural relations with African countries were established during Ottoman time and unfortunately, it came to a breakaway point after a while.

Turkey formed strategies on bringing Africa to the front in its foreign policy and Hazar mentioned that within the framework of Africa opening, Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Gabon in 3 years of time.

Moreover, Hazar underlined that last week Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Gabon, Niger and Senegal. Previously, Erdogan headed to Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and held talks in the Republic of South Africa regarding Turkey's Africa opening.

Hazar touched Turkey's advantages on developing its bilateral relations with African countries and said, "Turkey takes attention of many people in Africa. It is important that Turkey does not have a colonialist history, so that takes a big role in the formation of this attention. It is important that Turkey does not run only political and economic policies in its Africa opening and has cultural connections with African countries.