Contrary to the perspective of Western countries, Türkiye approaches African nations with a humanitarian focus based on unity, stated Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop.
“Türkiye also has historical and cultural ties with a significant portion of people in this continent. We have religious ties, especially with Northern African countries, and cultural ties with others in many ways,” Şentop told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Tuesday following the 17th session of the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Member States (PUIC) in Algeria.
Türkiye has a human-oriented foreign policy that applies to everyone, including European countries, the United States and Africa, Şentop noted.
Lambasting Eurocentric and orientalist attitudes toward the African continent, he underlined that the most crucial feature of Türkiye's relations with African countries is built on mutual respect, sincerity and cooperation.
“Ankara's approach to Africa is completely different from others. It is based on a win-win,” he said.
"Our businesspeople do not have the same approach as Westerners, such as exploiting human resources, underground and ground sources, and taking them to their own countries. Türkiye can't accept such a policy," he said.
Türkiye has expanded its diplomatic network in Africa and is constantly trying to develop relations in the political and commercial fields, Şentop said, adding that his country “knows the power, influence and strategic importance of Algeria in this regard."
Hailing bilateral ties between Ankara and Algiers, Şentop said: "We have historical, cultural and religious reasons to base these relations on. Very few nations have such reasons to establish good relations. Algeria is an exceptional country for us."
He said relations between the two have been good since Algeria gained independence.
Beyond bilateral ties, Algeria-Türkiye relations have the potential to create "a great synergy" in Africa, the Mediterranean region, and the Islamic world, he argued.
During Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's visit to Türkiye in May, several agreements were signed and later, Türkiye-Algeria relations began to develop in many aspects, Şentop recalled.
Noting that the trade volume increased 28% in a year to $5.3 billion, he said, "It is an extraordinary development, and they are making efforts to move it forward."
Blaming Europe for its "two-faced, double-standard" attitude to Islam and Muslims, Şentop further said the anti-Islamic perspective and anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe “have not changed.”
“The mindset model the crusaders had centuries ago continues exactly in the same way," he said.
Referring to recent attacks against Islam's holy book in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, Şentop said the fact that these demonstrations were carried out under governmental permission and police protection showed the states are “essentially complicit in the crime.”
He said that the law and human rights for Europeans essentially apply only to white and European Christians.
“These countries tried to justify the attacks using freedom of expression and human rights, but they changed their tune following the attempt to burn the Torah,” he said.
Emphasizing that Muslims essentially believe in the Torah and do not accept insults toward it, Şentop said: "The governments of these countries did not allow the Torah to be burned. That makes it clear this is a matter of hypocrisy and double standard, not of human rights or freedom of expression.”
Under the government's approval and police protection, far-right Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan torched a copy of the Holy Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Jan. 21, drawing global outrage and condemnations from the Arab and Islamic world.
The next day, Edwin Wagensveld, another far-right politician and leader of the Islamophobic group PEGIDA in Denmark, tore out pages from the Quran in the Hague and burned them. He then posted a video of the provocation on his social media accounts.
Last Friday, Paludan was also in Denmark to burn another copy of the Quran in front of a mosque, announcing he would burn the Muslim holy book every Friday until Sweden is included in the NATO alliance.
Sweden’s accession to NATO, for which it applied alongside Finland last year, has been held up by Türkiye’s objections on grounds of security concerns, namely regarding the terrorists and their supporters Sweden is harboring and tolerating. Public demonstrations by PKK terrorist sympathizers targeting Türkiye and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as well as Islamophobic attacks of recent weeks and Stockholm’s unwillingness to fulfill its commitments to a tripartite agreement, have brought NATO negotiations between the two countries to a gridlock.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country wanted to restore NATO dialogue with Türkiye, but Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said last Thursday it was meaningless to restart discussions.
On Tuesday, Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın said that Türkiye supports NATO enlargement in principle but told Sweden and Finland “from Day One that Ankara would not leave provocations unanswered.”
Meanwhile, a Turkish scholar has argued that French President Emmanuel Macron's recent remarks proved his country still pursues a colonial approach toward Africa.
“France colonized Algeria for 132 years, and ‘colonialism’ refers to a bloody, traumatic period of Algerian history that is seared into the nation’s mind,” Müşerref Yardım said Tuesday in an interview with AA.
"I do not have to ask for forgiveness; that is not the matter, the word would break all ties," Macron told French weekly Le Point earlier in January in response to Algerian demands for an apology and remorse from France for massacres committed in the African country during the colonial era.
"The issue of France's official apology for what it did in Algeria has been at the center of the relations between the two countries for many years," said Yardım, who teaches at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Necmettin Erbakan University.
Recalling how Macron described French colonialism in Algeria as a "crime against humanity" while preparing for the 2017 presidential election, Yardım said Macron also “admitted” in 2018 that his country used systematic torture during the Algerian liberation war.
She conceded that France had taken steps to confront its colonial past in recent years but the moves did not go beyond anything symbolic.
"Macron commissioned historian Benjamin Stora in 2020 to investigate France's colonial legacy in Algeria," Yardım explained. "A series of symbolic steps were taken, excluding 'apology' or 'regret,' to improve ties between the two countries. In his report, Stora said there was no problem with France apologizing for the massacres committed in Algeria. Macron, on the other hand, said that he would not apologize for his country's colonial rule."
The Turkish scholars argue that France's official approach to Algeria regarding its colonial past has not changed, referring to Macron’s latest remarks.
"If it weren't for France, you wouldn't exist now; you owe your existence to France," Macron previously told Le Monde, alluding to former French colonies, Yardım pointed out and said the French president attempted to honor his country's colonial past with this statement.
She said an apology would be the first step in restoring relations with other African countries, especially Algeria.
"Some groups, who demand an apology from France over its massacres committed in Algeria, are demanding that Algeria-France relations be reconsidered," Yardım said. "The traces of the French colonial past are even reflected in the Algerian national anthem. The anger and reckoning against France are apparent in the anthem. The demand from Algeria and other African colonies is that France should confront its colonial past and do what is necessary by accepting the crimes it committed against humanity."
"However,” Yardım added, “French officials don't have any intention to take positive steps."
France still claims sovereignty in Africa, even though the colonial period is over, Yardım also said, citing a speech former French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivered in 2007 in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.
"Even if there are mistakes and crimes in history, no one should expect today's generations to pay for the crimes past generations committed," Sarkozy said.
France passed a law on colonialism on Feb. 25, 2005, to teach students about the positive effects of the French presence in North Africa, but the bill was later scrapped due to public backlash.
"Although Algeria and other colonial countries strongly condemned the law, France still believes its colonialist policies were actually to the ‘benefit’ of the colonized peoples,” she said.
"The mission of 'civilizing the colonized people' persists in French policy, proving that although the colonies have declared their independence, France still does not withdraw from these countries and tries to protect its sovereignty," she said and concluded: “This colonialist mentality still exists in Europe.”
