His Excellency the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Somaliland, and the Acting Minister in the absence of Minister Saad Ali Shire, told the Voice America’s Somali Service that the statement of Ambassador Bekar on Somaliland-Somalia unity was nothing but another ‘dream’ similar to that of the Mogadishu administration leaders.
The Vice Minister was responding to another VOA interview but this time with the Turkish Ambassador to Somalia, Olgan Bekar.
Wareysi gaar ah: Danjiraha Turkiga ee Soomaaliya https://t.co/tArIsukTr9
— Turkey in Somalia (@TC_Mogadishu) November 10, 2016
VM Ahmed Adan Ismail ‘Keyse’ said “if, indeed, the Turkish Ambassador said what he said of the reunification, he was nothing but another mouthpiece of the Mogadishu leaders as he re-echoes their words”.
The Minister said Somaliland detractors kept parrying at Somaliland peace and stability and the confidence its public had on its leadership from every possible angle, and the ambassador’s assault was typical.
VM Keyse told the VOA that they have written to the government of Turkey and were awaiting its official response, and that the government of Somaliland will only act on the outcome.
“The primary drive behind the talks of Somalia and the Republic of Somaliland was to decide how to amicably disengage from a defunct union with one another and establish parameters of cooperation as to neighborly countries as enshrined in the first direct talks between the two sides in 2012,” VM Keyse stated.
The Vice Minister was referring to the first, face-to-face meeting between the two in June 2012 at Chevening House, London, the United Kingdom. This followed a declaration of a meeting for ‘Somalia’ in London on February 22, the same year, that His Excellency the President, Ahmed Mohamed Siilaanyo was invited to attend as Head of his State, Somaliland, which called Somalia and Somaliland to engage in face-to-face dialogue in order to resolve ‘long-standing issues’.
The Acting Minister, Keyse, declared that Somaliland will seek a neutral country to host the talks if it is satisfied of the partiality of the Turkish government. On the same token, he pointed out, Somaliland will continue to to invite more international players and countries to get actively involved in the flailing Somalia-Somaliland talks.
A day before the Minister’s interview on air, on November 10, Ambassador Bekar tweeted a picture of yet another massive ship docking on a Mogadishu pier laden with more foodstuffs.
Earlier, Ambassador Olgar Bekar granted an exclusive interview to the Somali Sercice of the Voice of America (VOA) on 5 November. In the interview, the Ambassador spoke of the extensive assistance his country gave to Somalia, and especially in training and providing for the security forces of Somalia, and especially its military capability. In that interview he revealed that his country started injecting US$2 million a month to the Somalia budget to, ostensibly, pay for policing payrolls
Moreover, he said, Turkey provided ‘Somalia’ food support exceeding 20 000 metric tonnes, parts of which were delivered to Somaliland and Somalia, although the bulk of which, he implied was destined for Mogadishu and area.
The giant ship arrives in the Mogadishu seaport. It is another sign of the flourishing business in Somalia. pic.twitter.com/GbwvywDD3P
— Turkey in Somalia (@TC_Mogadishu) November 10, 2016
In the same on-air interview, a question was asked him on Turkey’s stand in the on-going – but stalled – talks between Somaliland and Somalia.
The Ambassador stated that their primary objective behind Turkey’s hosting of the talks was ‘to safeguard the unity of the Somali people’, and that they wish to bring that about through dialogue between the two sides which they have been actively involved in since 2013. He said his country will recommence those efforts after the Somalia ‘elections’ were concluded.
On Monday last, the Somaliland ministry of foreign affairs spokesman said his country would seek Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s formal clarification before the Republic of Somaliland, through his ministry, took steps commensurate with the envoy’s many departures from diplomatic protocol on Somaliland sovereignty and the talks Turkey hosted between Somaliland and Somalia.
The Spokesman was cautiously responding to Ambassador Olgar Bekar’s declaration that his country only sought one outcome of the talks between the two Somali countries: their reunification.
The Ambassador’s words, despite the Somaliland ministry’s tactical approach, were seen as a clear signal that the government of Turkey was no longer impartial or objective about the talks but solidly on the side of the weak, AMISOM-propped administration in Mogadishu which granted it the first, solid foothold in the continent in the form of a military base in Mogadishu.
In July 2016, granting an interview to Somalia media practitioners, Ambassador Bekar repudiates an earlier statement of the Turkish Consul in Hargeisa regarding the Somaliland passport and how it can be used to travel to Turkey. The Ambassador was quick to point out that the passport of the Republic of Somaliland was, to them, nothing but another identity card.
This November, two years back in 2014, Ambassador Bekar promised the Republic of Somaliland that his country will maintain the neutrality it assumed on the surface as a host of the politically-based, bilateral talks between Somaliland and Somalia on what kind of future will the two erstwhile partner countries share in future.
However, the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation of Turkey responds to their envoy’s unguarded statement, the government and public of Somaliland appear to have seen in the statement the last nail on the coffin of an insecure relationship between the Republic of Somaliland and a government in Turkey that openly sides with Mogadishu to the detriment of Somaliland and its political, much-deserved aspirations.
