22 May 2024; MEMO: Turkiye is planning to donate a plot of land and construct an embassy building for Somalia in an offer worth up to $6 million, in what is the latest development in relations between Ankara and Mogadishu.
In a deal submitted to the Turkish parliament on Monday, the government proposed its plans for the allotment of 4,918 square metres of land in Ankara’s Incek diplomatic site to the Somali diplomatic mission, where the Turkish government would construct a 3,000 square metre embassy building for the East African nation.
The agreement, worth an estimated $6 million, would allow Somalia the right to sell the land and buildings in the future if it so wishes. The plan first requires ratification by the Turkish parliament before it can proceed, however.
Some Turkish media outlets have criticised the deal and the Turkish government’s proposal of it, condemning such a construction, while the funding for various domestic projects and services have apparently been cut by authorities amid an austerity drive.
The plan’s proponents have hit back at that criticism by highlighting that it is in return for an agreement signed between Turkiye and Somalia in 2022, in which the Somali government donated to Turkiye’s diplomatic mission a plot of land covering over 61,000 square metres and worth $65 million – more than ten times that of Ankara’s offering, and located in a prime area in Mogadishu.
