World Food Program: Turkey has gone from an aid recipient to a giver of aid in 10 years / 10 yıl önce yardım alan Türkiye şimdi yardım ediyor

The Atatürk Library (Atatürk Bibliotekası) in Comrat, Moldova, set up with Turkish aid. Comrat is the capital of Gagauzia, an autonomous region of Moldova with a language much the same as Turkish.

Here's some info from dunyabulteni.net in Turkish on Turkey's new role as a giver of development aid, whereas it was a recipient just ten years ago. What's most interesting is where the development aid largely goes though (see below).

Dünya Gıda Programı raporuna göre, Türkiye'nin dünya açlıkla mücadelede öncü rol oynadığı belirtildi.

According to a report from the World Food Program, Turkey is playing a pioneering role in the fight against world hunger.

Powell, Dışişleri Bakanlığınca yayımlanan "Uluslararası Ekonomik Sorunlar" adlı dergide yazdığı makalesinde, Türkiye'nin dünyanın en büyük insani yardım kuruluşu olan WFP'nin en büyük destekçileri arasında yer aldığını vurguladı. Powell, Türkiye'nin daha on yıldan biraz daha uzun bir zaman önce WFP'den yardım alan bir ülkeyken bugün programa en fazla kaynak sağlayan ülkelerden biri haline geldiğini söyledi.

(Deputy Executive Director John M.) Powell wrote in an article in the "International Economic Issues" magazine published by the Foreign Ministry that Turkey was one of the largest supporters of the humanitarian aid organization, the WFP, and that a bit over ten years ago it was a recipient of aid but had now reached a point where it was one of the countries in the program giving the most resources.

ABD tarafından geçen yıl yapılan resmi kalkınma yardımları 21,8 milyar dolar olurken, bu ülkeyi 12,3 milyar dolarla Almanya, 9,9`ar milyar dolarla Fransa ve İngiltere, 7,7 milyar dolarla da Japonya izledi.

The amount of official aid given last year by the US was $21.8 billion, followed by Germany with $12.3 billion, France and England with $9.9 billion, and $7.7 billion for Japan.

(The amount of development aid Turkey gave was $1.33 billion)

As for the recipients of the aid:

Rapora göre, 2006 yılında en fazla kalkınma yardımı alan 10 ülke arasında Nijerya 11,4 milyar dolarla ilk sırada gelirken, Nijerya`yı 8,6 milyar dolarla Irak, 3 milyar dolarla Afganistan, 2,1 milyar dolarla Pakistan ve 2 milyar dolarla da Sudan takip etti. 2006 kalkınma yardımlarından Kongo Demokratik Cumhuriyeti 2 milyar dolar, Etiyopya 1,9 milyar dolar, Vietnam 1,8 milyar dolar, Tanzanya 1,8 milyar dolar, Kamerun 1,6 milyar dolar aldı.

According to the report, Nigeria received the most development aid in 2006 with $11.4 billion, Iraq was next with $8.6 billion, then Afghanistan with $3 million, and $2.1 billion for Pakistan and $2 billion for Sudan. After this was the Democratic Republic of the Congo with $2 billion, Ethiopia with $1.9 billion, Vietnam with $1.8 billion, Tanzania with $1.8 billion, and Cameroon with $1.6 billion.

And now for the most interesting part, where a large part of the aid from Turkey is going:

Özellikle Orta Asya Cumhuriyetlerinde en önde gelen donör ülkeler arasında bulunan Türkiye, Türkmenistan ve Kırgızistan`da birinci, Kazakistan ve Azerbaycan`da üçüncü, Özbekistan`da ise 10. en büyük donör ülke konumunda.

Turkey is an especially prominent donor in Central Asian republics, and is the largest donor to Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, the third-largest to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and the 10th-largest donor to Uzbekistan.


These countries of course have Turkic languages as official languages, and Turkey is naturally interested in their development. Note also that TİKA (Turkey's development agency) contributes to such locations as Gagauzia in Moldova (another Turkic-speaking region, although note that they're Orthodox Christians) and has set up projects for hydro, drinking water and so on. They've also set up a library in the capital of Comrat. This library was first set up in 1998 when Turkey was still an overall aid recipient.

I've also written before on Turkey's aid to Kyrgyzstan to modernize its army, although technically I don't think this is the same type of aid.