Turkey has once again spoken of its willingness to mediate to resolve the dispute between Morocco and Algeria over the Western Sahara issue, in a move that analysts believe Ankara seeks to boost its influence in the region.
Turkish Ambassador to Morocco Omar Farouk Dogan said Ankara is ready to bridge the views between the two countries. This statement is part of Ankara’s willingness to gain a foothold in the region and compete with France, which is harassing Turkey in areas of its “regional periphery,” according to analysts.
During an interview with “Morocco Hebdo InternationalIn French, Ambassador Dugan said: “We support just development in the region and are ready to help the process of rapprochement between Morocco and Algeria.”
Turkish analyst, Taha Oglu, is not surprised, in an interview with Al-Hurra, by the ambassador’s statement, and says that Turkey has good relations with both countries, so the ambassador’s statement fits into this picture , as he said.
But for former Algerian diplomat Mohamed Larbi Zitout, Turkey defends its interests above all else.
displacing France
Zitot said in an interview with Al-Hurra that there is an international dimension to Turkey’s move, which is to compete with France, which sees the region as a traditional locus of influence for it.
Zitot points out that the Turkish move comes in light of the decline of French influence and the expansion of the presence of other parties, namely China and America, and more recently Russia and Turkey.
The Turkish ambassador to Morocco did not name the “third party” who claimed to benefit from the Moroccan and Algerian conflict, and only said: “Just look at the map of the whole world and the border issues between the countries, how is the case of Africa, to see which entities benefit from this situation”.
The analyst activist, Walid Kabir believes that the most important title for the Turkish move is France, and says in an interview with Al-Hurra that Turkey aims to remove France from the region and is playing on the historical dimension to achieve this goal.
The Turkish ambassador had said that relations between Morocco and Turkey date back to the 19th century, while the Turkish presence in Algeria dates back to the period of the Ottoman Empire.
For Kabir, France sees North Africa, especially Morocco and Algeria, as a “back garden” for its influence, and Turkey wants to compete with Paris.
Last August, Turkey denounced French President Emmanuel Macron’s “unacceptable” and “inappropriate” comments after accusing Algeria of “networks” run by Turkey, Moscow and Beijing to spread anti-French propaganda in Africa.
During last August’s visit to the former French colony, Macron invited young Algerians and Africans not to “get dragged” behind the “massive manipulation” behind which networks managed “secretly” by foreign powers present France as the ” enemy”. He referred to Turkey, Russia and China, attributing to them “an agenda of influence, neo-colonialism and imperialism”.
The diplomat points out that “Paris is annoying Turkey in Greece, Armenia and Syria, and it seems that the Turks want to annoy the French in their traditional areas of influence,” as he said.
Turkey counts on its good relations with the two rival countries, Algeria and Morocco. Zitot says Turkey has been selling drones to Morocco, and there is Algerian interest in buying drones from a Turkish company other than the one dealing with Morocco.
In mid-September, Morocco received the first order of Turkish combat drones of the “Bayraktar TB2” model, according to various local media reports on the “Far-Maroc” forum, which is an unofficial Facebook page of the Moroccan Armed Forces.
For Turkish analyst Taha Oglu, Turkish interest in the region is nothing new, and he explains that Ankara’s success in mediating the Ukrainian-Russian war and the grain crisis “encouraged Ankara to try to transfer its experience to other regions, “as he said.
Tension prevails between Algeria and Morocco, above all on the question of Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony that Morocco considers an integral part of its territory, while Algeria supports the Popular Front for the liberation of Saguia al-Hamra and the Valley of ‘Oro (Polisario), which calls for the independence of the region.
The dispute between the two countries deepened last year after then-US President Donald Trump recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the entirety of Western Sahara in exchange for the kingdom’s normalization of relations with Israel.
