Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that Ankara aims to complete its first-ever overseas deep-sea oil exploration operation off the coast of Somalia within six to nine months — a deployment of historic ambition for Turkey that has simultaneously ignited a fierce sovereignty and legitimacy controversy in Mogadishu, with opposition lawmakers branding the operation outright resource piracy.
The maritime drilling mission is taking place in waters off central Somalia’s Galmudug state and marks a watershed moment in Turkey’s expanding economic and strategic footprint in the Horn of Africa. Erdogan described the operation as historically significant, saying Turkey expects to complete the drilling within six to nine months if climate and weather conditions permit. He framed the energy initiative as a humanitarian and stabilising contribution to a nation that has struggled for years with instability, expressing hope that it would deliver long-awaited good news to the Somali people.
However, the hydrocarbon push has arrived at a moment of acute domestic friction in Mogadishu. Somali opposition leaders have accused Ankara of open bias toward President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, whose official mandate expired on May 15, and argue that Turkish actions risk propping up what they describe as an illegitimate administration during a delicate constitutional crisis. Critics contend that the defence and economic pacts underpinning the maritime exploration lack legal standing, with opponents pointing out that the Somali Parliament has not been shown the texts of the two agreements between Turkey and Somalia.
Somali Senator Abdi Ismail Samatar delivered some of the sharpest condemnation, accusing Turkey of knowingly proceeding with illegal operations. He charged that President Erdogan and his government are aware that the so-called defence and petroleum agreements between Turkey and Somalia are fraudulent, that the Somali Parliament had been bypassed entirely, and that Turkey’s actions constitute resource piracy — adding that no amount of diplomatic framing will alter that assessment or absolve Ankara of responsibility for conniving with what he called an illegitimate regime.
Turkey has long been a pivotal ally to Mogadishu, providing substantial humanitarian aid, infrastructure development, and military training to Somali forces combating Al-Shabaab militants. That history of partnership has insulated Ankara from sustained criticism in the past. But the current drilling operations are now entangling Turkish regional ambitions directly in Somalia’s turbulent internal politics in a way that could prove difficult to contain, as an increasing number of lawmakers and opposition figures publicly question the terms and transparency of Ankara’s patronage.
Source: somaliguardian.com