Turkey-Nigeria to deepen bilateral cooperation: Erdoğan

ABUJA

Turkey and Nigeria decided to boost their bilateral cooperation, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Oct. 20 after signing seven agreements with the African country.

Erdoğan and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari signed seven agreements during a four-day tour of the Turkish president to three African countries, including Angola, Togo and Nigeria.

“We discussed Turkey-Nigeria relations from all aspects. We are determined to deepen our cooperation,” the Turkish president said in a joint press conference, noting that his visit to the country after five years will take the relations to the next level.

Turkey is ready to share its capabilities in the defense industry and security fields, which are “appreciated worldwide,” with Nigeria, Erdoğan said.

Expressing Turkey’s expectation for cooperation fight against terror, Erdoğan said Ankara continues to share necessary information with the Nigerian authorities about the activities of FETÖ in Nigeria.

Buhari said they signed agreements in the fields of energy, defense industry, mining and hydrocarbons and expressed his will to implement these deals as soon as possible.

Erdoğan appreciates Togo’s support in fight against FETÖ

Turkey highly appreciates Togo’s support in the fight against the FETÖ, the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, Erdoğan said on Oct. 19.

Speaking at a joint news conference with his Togolese counterpart, Faure Gnassingbé, in the capital Lome, Erdoğan said that steps could be taken in military security cooperation so that terrorism does not infiltrate the West African region.

“We will always continue to stand by Togo in this regard,” he added.

“We want friendly countries to be cleansed of the scourge of FETÖ. I hope we will achieve this,” Erdoğan stressed.

FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gülen, orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.

Ankara accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Erdoğan also underlined that Turkey and the Turkic Council would donate COVID-19 jabs to Togo, Burkina Faso and Liberia as part of the efforts in the fight against the pandemic.

The Turkic Council was established in 2009 as an intergovernmental organization with the overarching aim of promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic-speaking states. It comprises Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan as member countries and Hungary as an observer state.