Cajoling Niamey for eight years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has just concluded a major military-economic agreement with the country, much to the chagrin of Paris.

On the sidelines of his West African tour at the end of July, during which he visited Togo, Equatorial Guinea (see Africa Intelligence today) and Niger, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu signed economic and defence agreements with Niamey. One of them explicitly aims to support Nigerien military forces in the fight against Boko Haram, on the border with Nigeria. The Turkish military pact also promises to help Niamey defend areas near Burkina Faso and Mali. This partnership, which makes Niger one of the African countries closest to Turkey, is to the credit of the activism of the new ambassador to Niger, the very discreet Mustafa Türker Ari.

A diplomat in khaki uniform

Niamey is the first ambassadorial post for Mustafa Türker Ari. Impossible to find any photograph of him before his arrival in Niamey in early 2019. He has previously always been in sensitive positions related to defense. After diplomatic posts in The Hague and Sofia, he was appointed to the International Security Directorate of the Turkish Foreign Minister. He will be active three times during his career in this direction - 1995-1997, then 2008-2009, before taking the lead between 2010 and 2014. He was then in charge of arms control and disarmament issues.

He will then be sent to Afghanistan under the aegis of NATO for the reconstruction of the country before being appointed Consul General in Stuttgart, an ultra-strategic position given the very large Turkish diaspora in Germany, then number two of the Embassy in Rome with the title of representative of Turkey in the NATO Defence College. The French command of Operation Barkhane, deployed in the Sahel region since 2014, is cautious about Turkish interference in Nigerien security affairs. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey - like Vladimir Putin's Russia in the Central African Republic in particular - assumes to be particularly active in the countries of the former French meadow, including on issues of defense and military equipment.

Diplomatic activism

The Turkish ambassador to Niger meets very regularly with President Mahamadou Issoufou. At the end of February, for example, the two men exchanged views on the major issues under discussion at the United Nations Security Council. At the end of July, they discussed Covid-19 and the aid that Turkey intended to accelerate in order to fight the epidemic. Ankara has already funded a hospital in Niamey, in operation since 2019, at the forefront in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

Mustafa Türker Ari does not limit his exchanges to Nigerien political leaders. For the past year, he has been crisscrossing most of the country's provinces to meet with traditional leaders and local businessmen. He also regularly confers with Sheikh Djibril Soumaila Karanta, the new president of the Islamic Association of Niger. In Parliament, he can count on the president of the Turkish-Nigerien friendship group, MP Ayouba Sirifi. Most of his interviews in Niger are widely highlighted on his Twitter feed, while his past career had remained totally in the shadows.

A well-connected wife

Mustafa Türker Ari is married to the current Director for Southern and Western Europe of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former Ambassador in Dakar (2014-2017) and briefly in Bamako (2018) Nilgün Erdem Arı. The latter, a perfect French speaker who studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, is close to the Turkish Foreign Minister. The Ankara ambassador to Niger had plenty of time to make contacts in Sahelian Africa when his wife was stationed in Dakar and Bamako.

What about Turkish-Nigerien cooperation?

Since the 2013 visit of Recep Tayyip Erdogan (then still Prime Minister) to Niger, economic exchanges between the two countries have multiplied ($72 million in 2019). Turkish Airlines now operates almost one flight a day between Niamey and Istanbul, which directly affects Air France's business. It is also the Turkish company Summa, led by Erdogan's "Mr. BTP", Selim Bora (Africa Intelligence of 20/07/20), which recently renovated the Diori-Hamani airport in Niamey and built the five-star Radisson Blu hotel for the African Union summit that took place. e in the Nigerian capital on July 7, 2019. Summa has also been active since 2018 on the Bouli gold project, of which it is now the sole owner (Africa Intelligence of 06/11/18). The group was also entrusted with the work of his country's embassy in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, inaugurated during the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister on 21 July. TIKA, the Turkish cooperation agency, has had an office in Niger since 2013 through which it finances a number of development projects. In the field of oil (Niger produces 20,000 b/d since 2011, via the Chinese CNPC) and energy, a Niger-Turkish partnership was also validated by Parliament in May 2020.

Fight against Gülenist networks

As for the Maarif Foundation - under the supervision of the Turkish Ministry of Education - it had no trouble taking over from 2017-2018 all the Nigerien schools formerly controlled by the networks of the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen (some 1,000 students in the country). The latter, an American resident for several decades, was accused by Erdogan of being the instigator of the 2016 coup in Turkey. After this failure, all organizations close to Hizmet – the movement led by Gülen – were dissolved in Turkey or dismissed abroad under pressure from Erdogan. Niamey also benefits from an increased number of scholarships for students sent to Turkey. Their number has been increased by 50% in 2020 thanks to the body in charge of this type of aid, YTB.