I was also going to comment on the omission of Somaliland! Agree with your response below, but think it does need to be factored into your otherwise rosy analysis.
I would also challenge your mention of the 1967 election. The point about an elected leader handing over power is fair enough. But I have always been struck by Abdi Samatar's discussion of those years and how dysfunctional the party system had become -- I strongly recommend pp 109-113 of The State and Rural Transformation (1989) for anyone unfamiliar with those years/trying to understand the context for Siad barre's coup and/or trying to explain why many of our colleagues in the 1970s seemed to rate him so highly.
"Ethiopia was armed by the Soviet Union, while Somalia was supported by the United States. The Soviet’s abandoned Somalia at their hour of need and were instrumental in Ethiopia’s battlefield victory."
Should Somalia be swapped with Ethiopia in the second sentence?
Somaliland is, for all intents and purposes, a different state at this point. It will be mighty hard to have them cede their de facto sovereignty and rejoin Somalia even after things improve.
I hope that Turkish activities in the region doesn't end up with the same exploitation like Eurpean and American activities did.
And I also hope that Turkish people in Africa doesn't display the same condescending and patronizing behaviour like the aforementioned.
I'm a Turkish guy born and raised in Germany. And I've seen it very often how a random illiterate moron displays the sense of superiority in front of even a highly educated person from Africa or in my case from Türkiye. Even though I'm a software engineer I had to endure "Lessons from a white dude explaining me the world"
I was also going to comment on the omission of Somaliland! Agree with your response below, but think it does need to be factored into your otherwise rosy analysis.
I would also challenge your mention of the 1967 election. The point about an elected leader handing over power is fair enough. But I have always been struck by Abdi Samatar's discussion of those years and how dysfunctional the party system had become -- I strongly recommend pp 109-113 of The State and Rural Transformation (1989) for anyone unfamiliar with those years/trying to understand the context for Siad barre's coup and/or trying to explain why many of our colleagues in the 1970s seemed to rate him so highly.
"Ethiopia was armed by the Soviet Union, while Somalia was supported by the United States. The Soviet’s abandoned Somalia at their hour of need and were instrumental in Ethiopia’s battlefield victory."
Should Somalia be swapped with Ethiopia in the second sentence?
Surprised to see no mention of Somaliland. How does it fit in to all of this?
Somaliland is, for all intents and purposes, a different state at this point. It will be mighty hard to have them cede their de facto sovereignty and rejoin Somalia even after things improve.
This will be the African Century 🌍.
I hope that Turkish activities in the region doesn't end up with the same exploitation like Eurpean and American activities did.
And I also hope that Turkish people in Africa doesn't display the same condescending and patronizing behaviour like the aforementioned.
I'm a Turkish guy born and raised in Germany. And I've seen it very often how a random illiterate moron displays the sense of superiority in front of even a highly educated person from Africa or in my case from Türkiye. Even though I'm a software engineer I had to endure "Lessons from a white dude explaining me the world"
Greeting from Istanbul 🇹🇷 ❤️ 🇸🇴