How Algeria-Turkey Ambitious Strategic Rapprochement Will Affect France’s Sahel Policy?

President Macron did decide to withdraw French troops from the Sahel last summer, leaving only special forces based in north Mali, he stated that Operation Barkhane will end early in 2022. Nonetheless, Algiers’ decision to not allow French military planes to use Algeria’s airspace will create a direct impact on the military mission and France’s entire ‘war on terror in the Sahel. In Algeria, however, bold decisions toward a strategic rapprochement with Turkey were in the making. Even though the new authorities in Algiers were hesitant for such a foreign policy shift, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the internal political struggle, constitutional and institutional amendments in the aftermath of the peaceful Algerian 2019 Hirak needed to be put in place. However, the tenacious resistance of the Francophile and Arabophone-nationalists anti-Ottoman legacy, the well-off social class, and elite pro-France lobbies in Algiers and Paris held back President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s Administration from improving the relations between Algiers and Ankara. Meanwhile, the ambassadors from both countries have been pushing tirelessly for the success of the strategic rapprochement between these two states.

Turkish President Erdoğan and Algerian President Tebboune pose for a photo after signing bilateral agreements between Turkey and Algeria in Algiers, Algeria on January 26, 2020. ERÇİN TOP / AA