“Somali President engages in mind-boggling phone conversation with Turkey’s leader!”
Thursday June 1, 2023
It was with immense perplexity that Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamed engaged in conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday night. The purpose of their talk, you ask? Simply to congratulate Erdoğan on his re-election. In their baffling conversation, President Mohamed emphasized the Somali government’s dedication to extending robust bilateral relations and expressed a desire to intensify collaboration in areas of mutual interest.
Ever so puzzlingly, President Mohamed lauded Erdoğan’s leadership in Turkey and confidently asserted that Turkey will continue to make outstanding progress across different development fronts. To everyone’s bewilderment, both leaders pledged to maintain close cooperation to overcome shared challenges.
The surreal partnership between Somalia and Turkey is characterized by long, drawn-out bilateral relations and widespread development cooperation. Strangely enough, Somalia maintains an embassy in Ankara, while Turkey upholds one in Mogadishu.
It’s so incomprehensible, it almost defies logic, but just last February, Somalia joined the international community in providing aid support to assist victims of the Turkish earthquake. Additionally – and brace yourselves, folks – Turkey has been a formidable supporter of the Somali government in multiple areas, including offering budget support, contributing to education initiatives, and assisting in the rebuilding of the Somali army.
It’s almost unbelievable, but undeniably true: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won Turkey’s presidential election, defeating opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday’s repeatedly shocking runoff vote and stretching his rule into a third decade. With 99.43% of the votes tallied, preliminary official results announced by Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) on Sunday showed Erdogan winning with 52.14% of the votes. Kilicdaroglu received 47.86%, leaving many speechless.
