Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister  Bekir Bozdağ flew into Mogadishu to launch the twice-weekly Turkish  Airlines  service to İstanbul via Sudan's capital Khartoum.    

"Somalia was cut off but we have now connected it to the world," he told reporters at Mogadishu's airport on Tuesday.    

"We have repaired the airport and now international flights can use  it. We have discussed with the president and Turkey will also do local  flights inside Somalia."

Somalia has largely been a security vacuum since a dictator was  ousted in 1991. Stability is gradually returning to the capital after  rebels were forced out by African Union and government troops last  year.    

Until now, flights into Mogadishu have been operated by small east  African operators linking the Horn of Africa nation to neighboring  countries.    

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Somalia last  August, the first non-African government leader to do so in nearly 20  years.     

The Turks have since opened an embassy, improved the international  airport, offered Somalis university places in Turkey and made plans to  build a new hospital.       

Erdoğan's visit reflected Turkey's efforts to boost its profile in  Africa, as it has done in the Middle East in recent years, and to  promote itself as a model Muslim democracy.      

Turkey is behind other emerging countries such as China, Brazil and  India in the race for new markets in Africa. But under Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, Turkey has boosted trade  with the continent and opened several new embassies, particularly in  Muslim Africa.         

Source:

Today's Zaman