Can Turkey and Algeria be strategic partners despite differences in Africa?

Turkish-Algerian ties have progressed remarkably over the past several years, as mutual interests seem to supplant Algeria’s unease over Turkey’s policies in Africa marked by Ottoman nostalgia and rivalry with France.

During a Nov. 21 visit to Algeria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed 12 accords, adding new loops to Turkey’s ties with Africa. The High-Level Cooperation Council between the two countries was renamed the Strategic High-Level Cooperation Council, reflecting a quest for a strategic partnership independent of internal and external factors.

Anti-French sentiments

Algerian efforts to come to terms with the legacy of French colonial rule have meshed with Erdogan’s tactics of using anti-French sentiments to open veins of influence in Africa. Erdogan’s anticolonial rhetoric has often proved too much even for Algerians, but beyond that, several factors have pushed the two countries closer.