The renewed relations between Turkey and Somalia began on August 19ᵗʰ, 2011 with the visit of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkish Prime Minister at the time) to the capital city of Somalia to lead Turkey’s efforts to help Somalis by containing the famine and providing humanitarian assistance. The Prime Minister was the first non-African leader that visited the conflict-torn capital of Somalia for more than two decades. After this visit, the Turkish public sector and civil society mobilized their efforts to assist in dealing with the humanitarian crisis. Since then, Turkey has provided infrastructure and state-building assistance to Somalia. Such engagement has entailed and strengthened societal relationships beyond governmental relationships.

Turkey’s multi-level engagement in Somalia has had an impact on the development of Somalia in the last decade. The symposium aims at bringing researchers, scholars, and experts together to discuss 10 years of the relations between Turkey and Somalia in all sectors. Africa Foundation, in collaboration with Social Sciences University of Ankara, Istanbul Commerce University and City University of Mogadishu, invites scholars and experts to participate in the event by sending their paper proposals on the different aspects of the relations between the two countries and two societies.

The abstracts should be sent to symposium@afrikavakfi.org along with the resume of the author(s). The abstracts should be between 250 and 300, the final papers should be between 3500 and 4000 words, and both of them should be written in English. The papers are going to be published in the conference proceedings book. Presentations can be made in English, Turkish and Somali.