Africa has recently been firmly placed on Turkey’s international agenda in a way that was perhaps unthinkable a couple of years ago. Television documentaries, newspaper articles, photo exhibitions, music concerts and above all, current government’s unprecedented support have all helped invigorating this recent interest on African ‘affairs’. Africa have become one of the main tourist destinations for many Turks. Despite a long history of Turkey’s involvement in the continent, particularly in North Africa this recent upsurge of interest is a new one with a variety of underlying dynamics worthy of investigation.

Two particular developments can be put forward to claim central prominence for this recent rise in interest on Africa.

The first is external. The debates across the globe following the launch of Commission for Africa (CFA) report set up last year by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, compromising 18 commissioners, did not escape the attention of the Turkish intelligentsia. The CFA report was published in the month before G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July 2005, with the hope that G8 leaders might endorse some of the report’s recommendations. The second is internal and relates to the announcement made in the beginning of 2005 by the Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, that ‘this year is going to be the Africa Year’. Soon after, following his words Prime Minister Erdoğan carried out official visits to Ethiopia and South Africa.