African initiative in Turkish foreign policy: Activities of TİKA in East Africa

The alterations experienced in the system in the post-Cold War period (external factors) and the situation Türkiye is in (internal factors) have caused a change in Turkish foreign policy. One of the tangible results of these conversions in Turkish foreign policy is the establishment of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) in 1992 with the aim of improving relations with the Turkic Republics.In this study, the operations conducted out by TİKA in is African countries, relatively have less workspace in the International Relations literature, were examined. The changes experienced in Turkish foreign policy are reflected linearly in the institutional structure and areas of activitiy of TİKA. The African Initative Policy declared in 1998, the declaration of 2005 as the 'Year of Africa' and the Türkiye-Africa Parterships Summits indicate the change in Turkish foreign policy, simultaneously signaling the inclusions of Africa in TİKA's sphere of activity. It would be appropriate to state that TİKA, holding an important place in the execution of Turkish foreign policy, is increasing is sphere of influence and power day by day. The TİKA Activity Reports published between 2014-2022 constitute the basic data source and time headway of the study. In order to evaluate the activities of TİKA firstly, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Development Assistance Comitte (DAC) organizations, which are primarly conduct studies in the field of development aid and the Monterry Consensus, the Paris Declaration and the DAC criteria, which are accepted in the international system, were examined. By analyzing the activies of TİKA in is Africa, whether TİKA is affected by the international system and the changes in Turkish foreign policy were examined with in the framework of the Constructivizm approach. By consolidating the DAC criteria and TİKA's own basic principles, orginal evaluation criteria were created to analyze the activities performed. The main purpose of tha study is to analyze to what extent TİKA, which is the first of the evaluation criteria, meets the basic needs of the recipient states. The activities carried out by TİKA in the field of Security were given special importance by evaluating the activities within the scope of basic needs. In this context, TIKA's involvement in the security field has been tried to be analyzed using smart power and realism theory. As a result of analyses carried out, it was determined that 86 (39.6%) of the 217 activities examined in total were aimed at meeting basic needs and dircet demands of the recipient state.