President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been visiting three countries on the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia, accompanied by high-level ministers and a large delegation of businessmen. As Ethiopia is currently holding the rotating presidency of the African Union, this is a timely and highly symbolic visit, particularly during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. While Erdoğan was on his way to Ethiopia, a serious attack was organized against the Turkish contingent in Mogadishu, Somalia. Although no Turkish lives were lost, the attack was aimed to create severe damage, possibly killing Turkish representatives in order to give a serious warning to Turkey.Since Egypt, a former Ottoman province at times, gained autonomy in 1803 Turkey has had no political or economic presence in the Horn of Africa. The attempts by Erdoğan to revive Turkey's centuries-old relations with Sudan and Somalia are a first in modern times. Africa is known as the black continent because of the terrible acts committed during the slave trade, colonialism and even afterward.Beginning mainly in the 1960s, the long history of independence in Africa is colored by corruption, coups, civil and proxy wars and neo-colonialism. It is not that visionary or popular leaders were scarce, but Africa's history is also a sad story of political assassinations. Jean Ziegler, a Swiss academic and writer, was one of the first to denounce the corrupt neo-colonialist system in Africa, although it would take two decades before developed countries could establish a system of "conditionality" to help underdeveloped African countries. At this point China entered the game not asking for any conditions for trade and the investments it set up in Africa. While proxy wars disappeared with the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Africa entered a new phase - that of the "failed state." Somalia was one such case, and probably the best-known example, due in part to acts of piracy on the high seas. Still, Somalia is not the only example, and other much wealthier countries such as Libya are also entering into the category of failed states.Turkey, under Erdoğan's leadership, has established a new, innovative and courageous "nation-building" process in Somalia. It has already produced a number of tentative results. More than 3,000 students have been educated in Turkish universities and hospitals, and voluntary aid has been organized. More importantly, transportation and communication infrastructure is being put in place. All this effort is probably too much for those political forces wishing to have a totally divided, ineffective and ailing Somalia. This is why the Turkish presence has been subject to a severe terrorist attack. But in response, the president did not change the program of his visit, sending a clear signal that Turkey will continue its policy of "African Cooperation" - one that does not aim at establishing any political dominance, but that targets the establishment of a large, thorough political, economic and social cooperation.The success of Turkey's new approach could create a new "development model" in this desolate part of the world, and should therefore be scrutinized attentively by the mass media.