On an official visit to Ankara since May 29, 2021, the Togolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Dussey, signed economic, commercial and educational cooperation agreements this Wednesday, June 2 with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Cavuşoglu.
Also announced to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Togolese foreign minister had a tête-à-tête on June 1 with the Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar. No information filters on the discussions which furnished the exchanges. He also spoke with this day with Turkish employers whose “decision to invest in Togo” he “congratulated”.
As a reminder, Turkish Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoglu was in Lomé in July 2020, where he had met Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé as part of an African tour that also took him to Niger and Equatorial Guinea. Officially, three agreements were signed this summer between the two parties: a memorandum of understanding relating to the establishment of a mechanism for reciprocal political consultations, a visa waiver agreement for diplomatic passport holders and a memorandum of understanding. agreement relating to cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Togo and the Turkish Diplomatic Academy.
In his statements to the press, Erdogan’s envoy notably indicated that he had raised, with the Togolese authorities, the case of Turkish schools in the country (mainly the Atlantic International School, ex-Togo Turkey, Editor’s note). Schools which he says are linked to the terrorist organization Fetullah (FETO) held responsible for the attempted coup that took place on the night of July 15-16, 2016, mainly in Ankara and Istanbul. Stating that the FETO group is not only a threat to Turkey, but also a danger to all the countries where its members live.
“We appreciate Togo’s support for our fight against the terrorist organization FETO. My friend Mr. Dussey informed me of the closure of a school affiliated with FETO. I thank Mr. Dussey and the Minister of Education. We thank the Togolese government “, declared Mevlüt Cavuşoglu in Ankara on Wednesday, June 2, alongside his counterpart.
This trip by the Togolese foreign minister to the Turkish capital – the first of its kind – follows the opening of a Turkish embassy in Lomé, as promised by Mevlüt Cavuşoglu in Lomé, and the immediate appointment of an ambassador. This is Esra Demir who, after handing over his credentials last March to Faure Gnassingbé, intends to mark the club of diplomats accredited in Togo, a club already “well influenced” by the presence and dynamism of the France and the European Union.
