A Founding Role in Turkiye's Africa Policy: The Action Plan for Opening to Africa.

• Author: Ozturk, Mehmet

Introduction

Turkiye-Africa relations have seen incomparably faster development in the last quarter of a century. In the process that started with the Action Plan for Opening to Africa in 1998, Turkiye declared the "Year of Africa" in 2005 and became an observer member of the African Union. At the First Turkiye-Africa Partnership Summit held in Istanbul on August 18-21, 2008, Turkiye was accepted as a strategic partner by the African Union. The second summit was held in Maloba on November 19-21, 2014, and the third was held in Istanbul on December 16-18, 2021. While the policy of opening to Africa, which was initiated in 1998, turned into a partnership policy in 2013, Turkiye's relations with the continent gained a multidimensional and profound continuity, including political, commercial, military development, and cultural aspects, after the opening gained ground. (1)

Turkiye's relations with African countries, the vast majority of which gained independence with the decolonization process in the 1960s, were hindered due to the effects of the Cold War, as well as issues such as coups in Turkiye, the problem of terrorism, and economic difficulties. Although Africa was put on the agenda for the first time in Turkish foreign policy to provide support for Cyprus after the 1964 Johnson Letter crisis, continuity in this policy could not be achieved. The Action Plan for Opening to Africa, which was put forward in November 1998, could not be fully implemented due to the issues arising from the coalition governments and other problems such as the 2000-2001 economic crisis; however, it overlapped with the multidimensional foreign policy perspective of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government that took office in 2002 and progressed with the economic concentration on Africa in 2003 and the declaration of 2005 as the "Year of Africa." It continued to gain continuity and dynamism in the following years. (2) The Action Plan has played a founding role in activism, visionary, and strategic importance in Turkiye's relations with sub-Saharan Africa and when considered together with before and after, deserves to be examined in detail.

This study is based on three main arguments. First, the Action Plan for Opening to Africa has played a foundational role in Turkiye's relations with the continent. Second, three factors in line with the role theory, namely leadership combining idea and practice (Ismail Cem), domestic political conditions, and external developments, were influential in the emergence of the Action Plan. Third, due to the importance of the Action Plan, it needs to be examined more deeply.

In parallel with Turkiye's developing relations with Africa for the last quarter of a century, academic studies on this subject are also increasing. However, the majority of these studies do not delve into the content of this Action Plan, being content with stating that it started in 1998. (3) In this study, while the content of the Action Plan for Opening to Africa is examined in depth, the reasons that give rise to it are also discussed. In this context, this Action Plan, which was carried out under the leadership of Ismail Cem, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the ANASOL-D (Motherland Party/ANAP, Democratic Left Party/DSP, Democrat Turkiye Party/DTP) coalition government established in Turkiye in 1997, cannot be separated from the domestic and foreign political developments of the period and requires a holistic perspective.

Numerous studies in the relevant literature assume that internal and international factors have an impact on foreign policy behavior and that these influences operate through the foreign policy elite responsible for determining, deciding, and implementing actions in foreign policy. In these studies, the perceptions and belief systems of policymakers toward their internal and external environments can be important variables in explaining the change in foreign policy. For example, Aras and Gorener in their study titled "National Role Conceptions and Foreign Policy Orientation," Holsti's "Why Nations Realign," and Kupchan's "The Vulnerability of Empire" can be given as examples such approaches. (4)

Role theory will be used in this study to analyze the birth and development of this Action Plan, which has had a founding role in Turkiye's Africa policy since its announcement. Role theory takes into account the influence of the intra-state and international systemic environment in the perceptions and decisions of the elites who design foreign policy (in this study, the foreign policy team led by ismail Cem). (5) In other words, for the analysis of such a decision, which represents a strategic and visionary step in foreign policy, first of all, questions about the individual/leadership profile of the architect of this plan, then-Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, internal conditions in Turkiye and international systemic effects to domestic politics should be answered.

In this respect, role theory will be discussed in the study. Secondly, the general position of Turkish foreign policy, especially in the post-Cold War period conditions, and the internal and external developments before the Action Plan will be examined. Thirdly, the role of Ismail Cem in the emergence of the Action Plan for Opening to Africa and the content of this Action Plan will be presented in all their dimensions. The review of the Opening to Africa Action Plan will be carried out per the sources of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (6)

Role Theory

Role theory, which emerged in the late 1920s and early 1930s, deals with patterns of human behavior. The theory applies the concept of a "role," which was initially borrowed from the theater (stage), to the functioning of the social order in relation to social psychology, sociology, and anthropology with the characteristics and behavior of the individuals who constituted it. Later, the concept was adopted by international relations academics to understand and explain the foreign policy behavior of a state. (7)

Role theory, from a symbolic interactionist point of view, depicts existing patterns or structures as emerging from the interaction between actors. The theory, which comes from the tradition of symbolic interaction, can be associated with constructivism (8) but differs from it in its understanding of the concept of identity. Although roles and identity are interrelated concepts, they also have unique conceptual features. Identity lacks agency, as it does not have an action-oriented meaning in its essence. Thus, the way to make connections between identity and action through motivational tendencies is through roles and becomes a tool in this sense. (9)

The most important proponent of role theory in international relations is Holsti and his work is built on three main concepts of role theory: role performance, role prescriptions (expectations), and national role conceptions. (10) The role performance emphasized in Holsti's role theory, which expresses the general foreign policy behavior of governments (their attitudes, decisions, and actions in foreign policy), occurs at the intersection of three things (and in our opinion, the rate at which they influence foreign policy is as follows, from least to most): The first is role prescriptions, which are open to change under changing conditions and arise from the external environment (and are presented through culture, social structure, laws, organizations, international system, obligations arising from agreements, and thoughts of world public opinion). The second is the "nation's status" or "self-defined national role conception," which attaches importance to the position of political parties, government, interest groups within the state, socioeconomic and social values, and the resources, interests, and expectations of the state. The third is the ego's role, or "policymakers' national role conceptions," which are characterized by goals, attitudes, values, ideologies, and personality traits. (11)

Role prescriptions refer to the norms and expectations placed on an actor by cultures, societies, or institutions in the system. The appropriateness of an actor's behavior is largely directly related to "what other actors in the community expect from him." (12) In other words, the actor who is assigned the role is expected to act per the role. In addition, the form of expectation can produce roles for different reasons, and these expectations are shaped by norms, beliefs, and preferences (attitudes). (13)

Norms, identities, values, culture, and the role preferences they entail are seen as motivating factors for state behavior in international politics. (14) In role theory, which includes agent-structure interaction in role formation, role actors are not only those who take on roles but can also play a part in role-producing or role-building. (15) In other words, foreign policymakers may be determining elements rather than simply following prescriptions. As will be examined in detail below, Turkiye's Action Plan for Opening to Africa during the Ismail Cem era is a good example of offering prescriptions or role-building in this direction.

Conceptions of national roles embody subjective insights that help policy-makers position their states in line with what they want to represent in the international system. Role theory underlines "the interaction between the external variables that make demands on the actor and the interests and goals that the actor sets for himself." (16) They constitute the basics of the standards and norms that shape government actions and reactions under different conditions. Role theory...