Algerian President Tebboune was full of praise when he spoke of Turkey’s relations with his country. A position not surprisingly judges the geopolitologist Yahia Zoubir, who explains how Ankara is in a game of politico-economic seduction aimed at extending Turkish influence in the Maghreb.
“Algeria has excellent relations with the Turks”, welcomed the Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune in the columns of the Point, on June 3.
How can we not cherish this relationship? Ankara has “invested nearly five billion dollars in Algeria without any political requirement in return”, welcomes the Algerian head of state. And too bad for the cynics, critics of this agreement: “those who are disturbed by this relationship have only to come and invest in us!” Tebboune tackled.
Turkey, the biggest investor in Algeria
Already in 2018, the National Agency for the Development of Investments declared that Turkey had overtaken France as the first foreign investor in Algeria. The gap has grown steadily since. Algeria is today Turkey’s second-largest trading partner in Africa, while Ankara ranks first among the countries that have invested the most in Algeria in recent years. During his visit to Algeria in January 2020, Recep Tayyip Erdogan reported 377 Turkish investment projects in Algeria.
“There is indeed significant cooperation at the economic level, particularly in the field of construction and energy. Five billion dollars of investments, it is enormous, insists Yahia Zoubir, Algerian geopolitologist.
However, this one is not fooled. There is no such thing as ” magic money “, some would say. The Turkish financial windfall in Algeria is not, as President Tebboune asserts, “without any political requirement in return .”
“There is a degree of ‘sultanism’ in these Turkish investments. They want to regain influence in the former Ottoman areas of the Maghreb, ”says the professor in international relations at the Kedge Business School and specialist in the Greater Maghreb.
For him, Turkey is in the process of regaining a foothold in what was once called the regency of Algiers, the vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. Beyond the economic aspect, certainly central, Ankara has many arguments to achieve its objectives in its bilateral relationship with Algiers.
Political and cultural game of seduction
At the level of their leaders, to begin with, the two countries maintain very cordial relations. Ministers and other diplomats from both countries receive each other regularly. President Tebboune also said on June 3 that he had been invited by Turkey for an upcoming official visit.
“Government to government relations are very good, there is a real understanding between the leaders of the two countries”, confirms Yahia Zoubir.
For example, in 2020 Turkey handed over retired chief warrant officer Guermit Bounouira to the Algerian authorities. This ex-Algerian military executive on the run had many Algerian state secrets and was trying to negotiate his naturalization in Turkey. ” This is a strong signal from the Turkish authorities of their willingness to cooperate with Algiers, ” said the geopolitologist.
The degree of penetration of Turkish cultural and political means in Algerian society is also considerable. There is for example “a significant presence of Turkish Airlines”, and this ” in cities or other companies present in Algeria do not go .”The Turkish airline also routes mail from Algeria to Mecca and vice versa, a significant fact in a country still very attached to its religion.
Turkish Soft Power in action
At the cultural level, too, there are many exchanges. Mosques dating from the Ottoman era are still present in the Algerian landscape, recalls the researcher. The two parties do not hesitate to recall the more than 500 years of history that bind the two countries. In 2016, they also celebrated 500 years of bilateral relations.
Like much of the Arab world, Algerians are avid fans of Turkish television series. A true instrument of Ankara’s Soft Power in most of the countries of the former Ottoman Empire, the impact of the Turkish series has been theorized by numerous academic articles, such as that of Nehir Ağirseven and Armağan Örki, Evaluation of Turkish television series in as instruments of Soft Power.
Geopolitical and ideological differences?
There are also important family ties between the two countries. ” There is even now an Algerian diaspora in Turkey “, underlines the professor of the Kedge Business school.
However, questions deserve to be asked about this alliance which at first seems ideologically unnatural. Indeed, Turkey is a staunch supporter of the Islamist movement of the Muslim Brotherhood *. A political faction that can represent a danger for the Algerian power often perceived as loyal to an Arab nationalist doctrine, a true ideological antithesis of the Brothers movement. And yet, the obstacle does not seem to pose an insurmountable concern:
“Algeria has no problem with the Muslim Brotherhood, it has a problem with radical Islamists and violent radical Salafists. For Islamists who are not violent, there is no problem, the Brothers have a political party, the movement for society and peace, ”Yahia Zoubir puts into perspective.
As long as they are not violent then, move around, there is nothing to see. However, all is not rosy in relations between the two countries. In particular in the eyes of a large part of Algerian public opinion, which blames Ankara for certain geopolitical choices.
“Many Algerians regret the fact that Turkey maintains relations, however minimal they may be, with the State of Israel,” recalls the professor in international relations.
Very attached to the struggles for self-determination of peoples and emancipation from colonialism because of their history, Algerians look with a skeptical eye at the development of relations with a country that has links with Tel Aviv.
Likewise, ” the Algerians blame Ankara for belonging to NATO “, an organization that they taste very little and to which they massively blame its intervention in Libya explains the specialist in the Greater Maghreb.
Differences which, however, do not seem to be of importance for the Algerian leaders who see, for the time being, the glass of bilateral relations as half full. Even full.
