The last destination on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's tri-country trip to Africa is Tunisia, where he arrived today to boost bilateral political and economic ties as well as increase Turkey's positive engagement in the region. Tunisia has centuries of history with Turkey. It is considered significant by Ankara for its geo-political position and as a potential opening route to Africa as a whole. Influenced largely by its former colonial ruler France, Tunisian-Turkish relations have deteriorated over time, despite both countries' common past.

According to Nevzat Çiçek, a journalist and an expert on Middle Eastern politics, this might be one of the main reasons behind the negative perception of Turkey that has emerged among the Tunisian Public in recent years. "In the past few years, there is a negative campaign against Turkey in Tunisia. I believe the president's visit will help to change this misperception of Turkey in Tunisian society," Çiçek said regarding the significance of the presidential visit. Since the early 2000s, Turkey implemented an initiative to increase its presence in Africa, which it says is based on a win-win policy rather than the previous experience on the continent based on colonialism and exploitation.

He said that during certain periods of Tunisia's history, the dominant powers in the country tried to keep Turkey away, "yet in recent years, Turkey managed to overcome this situation through aid that was transported with the support of the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency [TİKA] and NG's and the effective use of the press."

TİKA has been supporting Tunisia since 2012, especially in production sectors. According to TİKA's website, the support initially started to "support administrative and civil infrastructure in various categories such as reinforcing social and educational infrastructure, material/equipment provision to develop production sectors, capacity expansion projects and vocational training and technical cooperation particularly in the fields of law enforcement and security."

Having had ties since Tunisia's declaration of independence in 1956, Turkey and Tunisia signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation and also a joint declaration on the establishment of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council in 2011 and 2012, respectively. In 2015, Numan Kurtulmuş, minister of culture and tourism, who was a deputy prime minister at that time, joined a march against terrorism in Tunis, contributing to the two countries' relations.

According to Çiçek, countries in Africa have two unique features: "The first one is their strategic location along trade routes and the second is their underground resources and agricultural sites."

"Turkey showed its aim for the continent first with Somalia through aiding the country while also founding businesses that benefit both countries. Now, it wants to extend what it achieved in Somalia to other countries on the continent," Çiçek said.

The first non-African state leader to visit the country, Erdoğan, started to build close ties with Somalia in 2011, and since then, has widely supported the country from education to infrastructure. Turkey also built its second overseas military facility in Somalia. Erdoğan said Somalia has become a symbol of "the relations we want to establish with our brothers in Africa," referring to Ankara's win-win policy for the country and the continent.

Unlike the common perception that Turkey only has close ties with the Ennahda Movement in Tunisia only, the country also has close relations with the ruling Nidaa Tounes as well as unions, Çiçek said.

"The region referred to as Maghreb, including Tunisia, has always been in interaction with Mediterranean culture as well as Africa. It has always been on the stage of history as a place that let Mediterranean people enter Africa while helping Africans reach the Mediterranean coast," Hatice Uğur, an African studies academic, said, emphasizing the importance of the region.

Mustafa Efe, the head of the Ankara-based Africa Strategic Research Center, also emphasized the country's common past with Turkey. "Tunisia was a part of Ottoman Empire for more than 400 years. It is one of the countries in the region that resembles [Turkey] the most. The country is still full of Ottoman remnants," he said, adding that this visit is proof that Turkey will not leave the region idle.

On Sunday, Erdoğan started his four-day visit to Africa in Sudan and then moved on to Chad, both of which were the first times that a Turkish president has visited the countries.

Speaking to reporters at Esenboğa Airport in Ankara before heading to Sudan, Erdoğan said Turkey aims to further strengthen cooperation with Africa and discuss boosting ongoing regional business ties. This is the second presidential trip to African countries this year, following Erdoğan's visits to Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar in January of this year, making him the leader who made the most number of visits to Africa among world leaders.

"I believe that Turkey's aim is to be in a wider communication network with these regions with which it had continuous relationships throughout history," Uğur said over the potentials of the trip.

Historically, the Ottoman Empire, which ruled parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe for over 500 years, had a foothold in Africa, which ended after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, due to the Western-oriented foreign policy. Since 2002, Turkey began to be active on the continent with a new opening policy for Africa as well as the declaration of 2005 as the year of Africa. Since then, Turkey has been highly active on the continent to the extent that in 2011, the African Economic Outlook (AEO) declared Turkey one of the most important partners of the continent. Turkey was also the second-largest humanitarian donor in the world, following the U.S., according to a Global Humanitarian Assistance Report in 2017, due to its contributions to Africa.

Agreeing with Uğur on the importance of having close relationships with Africa in general, Çiçek said Africa has a significant place in the global balance today.

"Although for Turkish society Africa may seem irrelevant at first glance, the continent is actually the biggest area of struggle in the U.S. and China rivalry. Through these kinds of visits, Turkey aims to find a place for itself in this power struggle," he said, highlighting that Turkey has said it is here in Africa with these moves as well.