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President Recep Tayyip Erdoan became the first leader in the history of the Republic of Turkey to visit 23 African countries.

As both Prime Minister and President, Erdoan embarked on 39 trips to Africa, visiting 23 countries.

Including last week's visit to Tanzania, Mozambique and Magdagascar, President Erdoan became among the world leaders with most visits to Africa.

Turkey's recent diplomatic efforts in the continent led to Erdoan giving the most momentum to the effort aimed at opening up to Africa.

While visiting these countries, President Erdoan met with political and business leaders, signing a large number of mutual agreements between Turkey and African countries.

The number of Turkey's diplomatic missions in the continent also expanded as the number of embassies increased from 12 in 2009 to 39 today.

Turkey and Madagascar have signed four agreements on diplomacy, economy and aid as part of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's last stop in the southeast African tour. The signing ceremony took place Wednesday at the presidential palace in the capital city, Antananarivo, where Erdogan met his Malagasy counterpart President Hery Rajaonarimampianina.President Erdoan paying visit to Madagascar Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation and consultation between the ministries of foreign affairs of Turkey and Madagascar. Cavusoglu also signed a memorandum of understanding on diplomatic training, information and document exchange. Turkish Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci signed a protocol on the application of aid between the two countries. Also, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation Director General Senol Goka signed a cooperation protocol between his organization and Madagascar's Radio and Television Authority. Erdogan and his delegation were in Tanzania and Mozambique before they came to Madagascar.

'Most visited country is Egypt'

In addition to being the first African country he visited in 2004, Egypt is also the African nation most visited by President Erdoan, followed by Algeria, Tunisia and Ethiopia.

With the exception of the year 2008, President Erdoan traveled to Africa at least once yearly since 2005.

In the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, Erdoan embarked on trips to Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Tunisia and South Africa.

In the years 2012 and 2013, the President visited Egypt, Gabon, Nigeria Senegal, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

'Most number of visits to Africa was in 2016'

During his term as President, Erdoan embarked on several trips, visting Algeria and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea in 2014.

During his visits to East African states in 2015, Erdoan traveled to Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia. He embarked on a trip to 8 African countries in 2016, the year he visited the African continent the most. Countries included in the official visit were Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Guinea, Nigeria and Ghana.

In the context of his latest visit to Africa, which took place between 22-26 January, President Erdoan embarked on an official trip to Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar, raising the number of African countries visited to 23.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Ankara early Thursday after a five-day visit to Africa. Erdogan was welcomed by Ankara Gov. Ercan Topaca and city Gov. Melih Gokcek at Esenboga Airport. The president and a delegation traveled to Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar where he signed a number of economic and trade deals. The trip followed an earlier visit to the African continent last year where the Turkish president traveled to the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Kenya and Uganda in 2016.

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Erdoan becomes first Turkish leader to visit 23 African countries - Yeni afak English

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he delivers a speech during a City Planning Council meeting at Bestepe People's Congress and Culture Center in Ankara on January 27, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Turkey has decided to reconsider its controversial refugee deal with the European Union after the Greek Supreme Court refused to return the eight suspects allegedly linked to the countrys failed Julycoup.

A political commentator believes Turkeys response is quite threateningin terms of maintaining peace within the EU," adding that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has played this migrant card very well over the past year.

I think that Erdogan is flexing his muscles obviously and quite brazenly and pointing out that if you do not like the way I am running Turkey, just remember the position that I hold with this card, Daniel Patrick Welch told Press TV in an interview on Friday.

He also described Erdogan's use of the migrant card as a very cynical move,arguing that it is playing to the outright racistfears in Europe about the refugeescoming from countries that are being bombed by European states.

The commentator went on to say that it is ridiculous that the Europeans are trying to keep people out when they have created the refugee crisisin the first place, noting that Erdogan is keeping the key to the door and using it as a diplomatic weapon."

Elsewhere in his remarks, Welch stated that the Greek governments concern about the fate of the eight suspects is legitimate given Erdogans fanatical response to the coup with all the purging and the mass arrests, which were very scary and undemocratic for a lot of observers.

However, he said, the European polity is so obsessed with the migrant issue that they might try to force Greece to back down, because they're desperate to address this problem because the far-right has made it such an impossible political issue that they have to solve it on some level."

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Erdogan playing migrant card very well: Commentator - Press TV

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In my estimation, nearly 1 million people have died in Syria. These deaths are still continuing without exception for children, women and men. Where is the United Nations? What is it doing? Is it in Iraq? No. We preached patience but could not endure in the end and had to enter Syria together with the Free Syrian Army, said Erdogan, as reported byHurriyet Daily News.The Free Syrian Army is a moderate rebel group.

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Why did we enter? We do not have an eye on Syrian soil. The issue is to provide lands to their real owners. That is to say we are there for the establishment of justice. We entered there to end the rule of the tyrant al-Assad who terrorizes with state terror, Erdogan continued, insisting his forces were not in Syria for any other reason.

TheDaily Sabahnotes that Erdogan spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Syria during two telephone calls last week. Since Russia launched a massive military operation to secure Bashar Assad in power, Putin would presumably have been interested in anything Erdogan had to say about toppling the regime in Damascus, and probably would not have kept quiet about it.

Erdogans calls to Putin came two days after the event widely seen as changing Turkeys posture in Syria, the death of four Turkish soldiers in an airstrike Ankara blamed on the Syrian regime. The Turkish troops were conducting a joint operation with Syrian rebels at the time.

It is clear that some people are not happy with this battle Turkey has been fighting against Daesh. This attack will surely have a retaliation, declared Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim after the airstrike on Thursday.

Turkey claims Russian officials have confirmed it was not a Russian jet that bombed the Turkish soldiers near the ISIS-occupied city of al-Bab, leaving the Syrian military the only likely suspect for the bombing. Syria has expressed displeasure over the presence of Turkish troops near al-Bab, and has threatened to respond to further incursions decisively and with force.

Syrian officials would not confirm or deny whether their aircraft hit the Turkish positions, but it didnt help ease tensions between the two countries when the Syrian government blamed Turkey for the death of its soldiers.

If the Turks want to complain they should complain to themselves. What happened was inside the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, said Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Saturday, in the first public comments a Syrian official has made on the bombing.

As the Associated Press noted last week, Turkey has said its helping Syrian rebel forces attack al-Bab because taking the city would put pressure on the ISIS capital of Raqqa, creating what Erdogan called a region there that is free of terror.

Most observers suspect that Turkeys real priority is to create a region free of Kurds. Another town Erdogan has talked about capturing, Manbij, is currently held by Kurdish forces, not ISIS.

A Reuters analysis on Tuesday suggested Turkey is pulling its allies out of Aleppo, where the Syrian-Russian alliance is throwing a brutal haymaker punch at the rebellion, in order to secure the no-Kurds buffer zone along the Turkish border that Erdogan most eagerly desires. This could explain why the reaction to Erdogan technically declaring war on the Assad regime has brought such a muted response. What he called for on Tuesday is quite different than what he appears willing to settle for.

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Erdogan: Turkey Entered Syria to 'End the Rule of the Tyrant ...

The Turkish Parliament passed constitutional amendments last weekend that could allow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to amass unprecedented power. Amidst terrorist attacks by the so-called Islamic State and Kurdish militants, Erdogan and his far-right allies are presenting the deal as a way out of chaos, promising that terrorism will cease once the constitutional amendments are approved in the upcoming referendum in April. But with an 80-million-strong population comprised of more than 20 ethnic and religious minorities, the further centralization of decision-making will only exacerbate the countrys ills.

With the proposed amendments, Erdogan seeks to consolidate all powers executive, legislative and judicial in one office: his palace. The Parliament will have little power to hold the president and his cabinet accountable. Erdogan will also appoint two-thirds of the countrys most senior judges, further undermining checks and balances in a country with the worlds worst record of press freedom. He will now be able rule by decree and even declare a state of emergency unilaterally. In short, Turkey already one of the most centralized systems in the world will turn into an over-centralized regime.

Turkeys political instability, chronic security problems and economic volatility have as much to do with power-hungry leaders as with the burdens of top-down and undelegated policy-making. For a country already marred by economic slowdown and secular-Islamist polarization, at the brink of civil war with its Kurds, over-centralized rule is the worst course to follow.

Turkey entered 2017 with a devastating, ISIS-claimed attack at an Istanbul nightclub that killed at least 39 people. But the jihadists are but one group that has been targeting the country. In December alone, Kurdish militants conducted two suicide bombings in Istanbul and another in central Turkey, killing 58 citizens. Between ISIS and Kurdish militants, there have been more than 30 bombings over the past year and a half.

The economy is suffering, too. Despite a whopping 24 percent increase in government spending in the last quarter, in December, the economy contracted for the first time since 2009 interrupting 27 quarters of continuous growth. Even the Turkish Statistical Institutes highly questionable accounting failed to find a way to paper over the slip in third-quarter economic indicators. As global markets reacted to news of contraction, Turkeys five-year bond yields hit 11.51 percent, the highest since the 2009 crisis. Meanwhile, the lira fell to 3.80 a dollar, a record low.

Turkey is caught in a downward spiral and needs an urgent reversal of its political and economic course. But leaders in Ankara are pouring gasoline on the fire instead.

In July 2015, the Turkish governments peace talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) ended after a two-year respite. More than 300 people lost their lives in resumed clashes since then. But Ankaras response has been to crack down not only on the PKK but also on the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP). Incidentally, the HDP formerly a fringe party became Turkeys second largest opposition last June, a success hinged on its vociferous opposition to Erdogans presidential designs.

In the run-up to the constitutional debates in Parliament last month, Turkish authorities detained hundreds of HDP local executives countrywide. As of today, 11 HDP lawmakers, including the partys co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, are in jail. After vandalizing the HDPs Istanbul headquarters, the police also spray-painted threatening graffiti on the walls. Such retaliation, reminiscent of the extrajudicial methods of Turkeys Dirty War against Kurdish insurgents in the 1990s, only alienates moderate Kurds while also playing right into the hands of the militants. Punishing the HDP for the PKKs sins is destined to backfire: The more Ankara pushes the HDP out of the political system, the more disenfranchised Kurdish youth will turn to extremist groups like the PKK.

Erdogan and his far-right allies in Parliament are presenting the draft constitution to the public as the only solution to Turkeys terrorism problem, arguing that a powerful presidency is the best way not only to help secure the country but also to resuscitate its economy. But further consolidation of power in one office and person is not what the country needs. Ankara paranoid of delegating any authority to local governments is crushed under the burden of micromanagement. A 2013 study shows that up to 60 percent of the cabinet decisions concerned real estate and zoning issues.

Turkeys politics and economy could benefit immensely from subsidiarity by handling decisions at the lowest possible level of competence. Decentralizing a country as populous as Germany, and twice as large, would not only strengthen governance and boost the economy, but also pave the way for the political and socio-economic inclusion of Kurdish citizens and the resolution of internecine bloodletting. Remedying gross inequality in regional income which hits majority Kurdish areas hardest requires more than generous incentives and handouts. It necessitates effective governance that allows locals to partake in decision-making and implementation.

This is easier said than done in a country where the public is highly skeptical about decentralization, seeing it as a threat to the countrys national unity and territorial integrity. The French, however, have proven with the 1982 Decentralization Act and 2003 constitutional amendments that the unitary state model which the Turks hold dear can go hand-in-hand with decentralization. Moreover, the Council of Europes Charter of Local Self-Government, which Turkey has been party to for nearly three decades, provides a roadmap for delegating power to local authorities.

Turkish voters will head to the polls in April for possibly the most consequential referendum of their lives. An overly centralized polity and a weak legislature unable to hold the executive accountable, combined with Erdogans reckless and authoritarian style, are exactly what have brought the country to the brink. Any steps towards de jure one-man rule would only accelerate Turkeys downward spiral.

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Erdogan's Further Consolidation Of Power Would Cement Turkey's Demise - Huffington Post

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged African countries to close schools associated to an exiled cleric, whom the president accused of planning the countrys abortive coup in July 2016.

Erdogan undertook a three-legged tour to East Africa this week, with stops in Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar. During a public address in the Mozambican capital Maputo Wednesday, the Turkish leader asked the government for support in cracking down on followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen.

We know that cells of this group are present here in Mozambique, and are replicating their initiatives and their hidden agendas in several parts of the world, said Erdogan, sharing a platform with Mozambiques President Filipe Nyusi, the African News Agency reported.

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Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) inspect a guard of honor during a state visit to Mozambique on January 24 in Maputo. Erdogan claimed "terrorists" linked to Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen were active in Mozambique. ADRIEN BARBIER/AFP/Getty

Erdogan blamed Gulen and his followers for the failed coup. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of Turkish societyincluding soldiers, teachers and police officershave been arrested or detained in the wake of the coup, during which a faction of the Turkish military attempted to seize control of several key cities and fired upon the Turkish parliament and presidential palace.

Gulen has denounced the coup attempt and denied any involvement. The Islamic cleric, a former Erdogan ally who went into exile in the United States in 1999, leads a global socioreligious movement known as the Hizmet (the Service), though the Turkish authorities have dubbed it FETOa Turkish acronym for Gulenist Terror Organization.

The movement runs a large network of Islamic schools and other associations in different parts of the world, including Africa. The Turkish ambassador to Nigeria asked the countrys authorities to shut down 17 schools in the West African country that were purportedly run by Gulens supporters in the wake of the coup. In Mozambique, one of the countrys most prestigious schoolsthe Willow International School in Maputois reportedly run by the Gulenist movement and is where many high-ranking officials send their children for education.

Nyusi did not mention publicly whether he would act upon Erdogans warning. Newsweek reached out to the Mozambique High Commission in the U.K. but received no immediate reply. Newsweek also asked the Willow International School for confirmation of its status but had not received comment at the time of publication.

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Turkey's President Erdogan Warns Coup-Plotting 'Terrorists' Are Active in Mozambique - Newsweek