TPA Watchman  

The national day reception to celebrate the 101st anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Türkiye (October 29), was an occasion to ruminate on the state of relations between Türkiye and Botswana.

And Türkiye Ambassador, Ahmet idem Akay was at hand to wax lyrical, extolling, in the presence of Ambassador Clifford Maribe, the Deputy Permanenty Secretary, Bilateral Diplomacy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – the peace and stability that continue to characterise this country and thus, attract like-minded states.

Ambassador Akay highlighted quite a number of bilateral engagements between the two nations that made 2024 a “productive year”. Among these, he cited the three different aid and development projects carried out in Botswana by the Turkish Embassy in cooperation with the Turkish International Cooperation and Coordination Agency – TİKA.

In March tjhis year, and within the framework of the Ramadan Month Food Aid Project, they donated food hampers to 500 needy families in Gaborone, Lobatse and Rasesa village.

Amabassador Akay also attended a handover ceremony at the Selolwe Junior Secondary School in Francistown, where through TİKA they donated special educational equipment for the visually-disabled students at that school.

In collaboration with TİKA and Botswana Red Cross Societythey also organized a two week textile training course at the Tlamelong Rehabilitation Centre.

“We provided different materials and a textile trainer who has experience with TİKA. It has been a great pleasure for me to oversee these TİKA projects in Botswana, which were realized with a total budget of P543.000”, Ambassador Akay noted.

He promised that TİKA will continue to cooperate with the relevant Botswana institutions in carrying out further projects.  

The Turkish envoy also attended the official launch by President Mokgweetsi Masisi of the state of the art Pandamatenga silos, which apparently, were constructed by a Turkish company.

“H.E. while touring the facility expressed how he was impressed by the Turkish technology and congratulated me. It was a proud moment for me and my country”.

Another important area of bilateral cooperation is education. This year a record number of Batswana students were awarded Türkiye Scholarships. Total of 7 undergraduate and graduate students recently departed to Türkiye to begin their studies at different Turkish universities.

They will be getting their degrees in agriculture, engineering, architecture, finance, dentistry and criminal law. Before they left for Türkiye my wife and I were happy to host them at our Residence.

He assured of their efforts to reach the potential of Türkiye – Botswana commercial and trade relations and try to attract more Turkish investment in Botswana.

To this end, he recalled the recent visit to Gaborone, by their Pretoria-based Commercial Counsellor, who is also responsible for Botswana.

“We had productive meetings with officials from Business Botswana, Botswana Exporters & Manufacturers Association, Botswana Investment & Trade Center, Local Enterprise Authority and Botswana Meat Commission”, he said.

In the area of cultural exchange, following the Centennial events in 2023, they organized for the first time in Botswana the Turkish Cuisine Week promoting Turkish food which actually represents our cultural identity.

During the TCW, they collaborated with Gaborone College of Culinary Arts where Turkish Chef Tolga gave a cooking class to the students and also cooperated with Hilton Garden Inn, where they offered Turkish food as part of their menu during the Cuisine Week.

In June, as part of World Breakfast Day, they treated their distinguished Batswana guests to a rich Turkish breakfast. As a result of these events Chef Tolga became so popular that he was interviewed on YTV.

The embassy continued its cooperation with the Botswana Society for Jazz Education, who organized the local celebrations of April 30th International Jazz Day. As part of the International Jazz Day events, the Turkish documentary film “Leave the Door Open” was screened at the Maitisong Theatre.

Ambassador Akay was delighted when the Botswana Football Association decided to hold a training camp for the Botswana Womens Senior national football team, The Mares, in Antalya, Türkiye back in February. The Mares had a successful camp.

As the Special Representative to the Southern African Development Community-SADC, Amb. Akay mentioned that Türkiye also attaches importance to further its relations with SADC Member States, announcing tht they are currently negotiating with the SADC Secretariat an MoU on Trade & Investment Cooperation.

As the Republic of Türkiye enters its second century it continues to pursue a foreign policy based on the motto “Peace at Home, Peace in the World” which was set by the Republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Being a regional power and a global actor, Turkey attaches importance to developing multi-regional relations, corresponding to an evergrowing global interconnection.

Türkiye is a member of different organisations and platforms, namely, G20, NATO, Council of Europe, Organisation for Security & Cooperation in Europe-OSCE, Organisation for Economic Cooperation. & Development – OECD, Asia Cooperation Dialogue-ACD and Conference on Interaction & Confidence Building Measures in Asia-CICA.

“We are a strategic partner of the African Union since 2008 and Sectoral Dialog Partner of Association of South East Asian Nations-ASEAN since 2017. And just last week Türkiye became an offficial BRICS partner country together with other 12 countries,” the Ambassador said.

The two Ambassadors made a toast to the health and happiness of H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Türkiye and to H.E. Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, President of the Republic of Botswana.

(C) TPA2024