Mogadishu — A high-level forum on the new era in Türkiye-Somalia relations opened here with a message that went far beyond diplomatic pleasantries. Somalia’s Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Abdulfatah Kasim Mohamud, stood before an audience that included the Speaker of the House of the People, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, and laid out a vision of a relationship that has matured in remarkable ways. What once began as humanitarian and development engagement, he reminded everyone, has grown into a comprehensive strategic partnership. That partnership now stretches across security and defense, energy, fisheries, infrastructure, ports, aviation, investment, education, health, and institutional development. It is, in other words, no longer a story of emergency aid and charity. It is a story of two countries building something together, brick by brick, project by project. But the Minister was careful to make one thing clear: this is not only an agreement between governments. It is a relationship built between two peoples. That distinction matters, because it explains why the partnership has lasted. It was not imposed from above. It grew from trust, from repeated contact, from Somalis and Turks working side by side in hospitals, training centers, and construction sites. The forum itself, organized by the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, was a sign of how much importance both countries now attach to communication, public trust, and the struggle for credible information. For Somalia, the visible presence of Turkish institutions in Mogadishu and the growing footprint of Turkish investment are not abstract policy choices. They are part of daily life. Yet, as the Minister warned, this very visibility also makes the relationship a target. Those who wish to undermine Somalia’s stability, or to weaken its international standing, will not necessarily attack with tanks or troops. They may use narratives, falsehoods, and coordinated campaigns. That is why the forum was not simply a diplomatic courtesy. It was a serious conversation about how the partnership should be defended in an age when information itself has become a weapon.
On the question of sovereignty, the Minister was direct and unyielding. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia are not negotiable, he said. Somalia will continue to respond to challenges through diplomacy, international law, and engagement with partners and multilateral institutions, while making its position clear and consistent to the international community. But he then added a second dimension that is often overlooked. In today’s world, sovereignty is not only challenged by physical aggression. It is also challenged by the manipulation of the information space. Disinformation, manipulated narratives, coordinated perception campaigns, and extremist propaganda are increasingly being used to influence public opinion, undermine confidence in state institutions, create divisions within society, and distort how the outside world sees Somalia. The Minister’s words reflected a growing understanding among Somali officials that the country’s hard-won progress can be undone in the minds of citizens and international partners even when the guns are silent. A false story repeated often enough can cast doubt on a real achievement. A fabricated scandal can poison trust in institutions that are still being rebuilt after decades of conflict. Extremist groups, meanwhile, have long understood the power of propaganda. They use every platform available to spread fear, recruit vulnerable people, and create chaos. The Minister made clear that Somalia does not intend to treat these threats as secondary. Defending the country today means defending the truth about what Somalia is, what it has achieved, and what it stands for. This is not simply a communications problem. It is a national security issue. And because the partnership with Türkiye has become so important to Somalia’s development, it is also a shared issue. As cooperation expands into strategically important sectors, the Minister warned, there will inevitably be narratives that seek to misrepresent its nature, purpose, or benefits. Disinformation can take an isolated issue, manufacture suspicion around it, and attempt to weaken the trust the two countries have built over many years. A partnership whose results are visible on the ground, he said, should not be defined by accounts that are false.
The Minister’s answer to this challenge was not to call for censorship or simply to complain about the problem. His answer was proactive communication. He argued that Somalia and Türkiye must explain their agreements clearly and tell people what those agreements actually deliver. Credible information must be provided before misinformation occupies the space. Citizens need to understand where the partnership is going and why it matters. Strategic communication, he insisted, is not only about responding to disinformation but about leading with facts, transparency, and confidence. This is a subtle but important shift in thinking. In many countries, official communication is reactive. A false story appears, and the government scrambles to correct it. By then, the damage is often already done. The Minister’s vision is different. If governments are transparent from the start, if they communicate in plain language, and if they show real results, then false narratives have less room to grow. People who trust their institutions are less likely to believe a lie about them. People who see a hospital being built, a port operating, or a training program changing lives will not easily accept the claim that the partnership is harmful. This is especially true in Somalia, where the state is still rebuilding its relationship with citizens after years of instability. Trust is not given automatically. It is earned through evidence and honesty. The Minister also recognized that the partnership with Türkiye is not always easy to explain. It involves defense agreements, economic deals, and strategic investments that can appear complicated or even controversial if presented without context. But that is exactly why communication must be intentional. Silence or ambiguity leaves room for rumors. A proactive approach, on the other hand, can turn the partnership into a source of national pride. People should know what their government is doing, why it is doing it, and how it benefits them. When they do, they become defenders of the partnership themselves. The Minister’s call was therefore not just to officials or media experts. It was a call to build a culture of openness around the relationship, so that the truth is already established when the next lie arrives.
Turning to the Somali side, the Minister described what has already been built to protect the country’s information environment. The Ministry of Information holds the government mandate to lead and coordinate strategic communication. A National Committee for Government Communication Coordination has been established, bringing together the Presidency, the Office of the Prime Minister, relevant ministries, defense and security institutions including the Somali National Army, the Somali Police Force, and the National Intelligence and Security Agency, as well as the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs and the National Communications Authority. The goal, he said, is better monitoring and analysis of the information environment, earlier identification of harmful narratives, faster dissemination of verified information, and stronger coordination across government. This institutional work is essential. In the past, government communication in Somalia was often fragmented. Different institutions sent different messages, and false information could slip through the gaps. Now, the government is trying to build a unified approach, one that is professional, rapid, and evidence-based. The Minister acknowledged that Somalia still has much to learn. That is why he proposed moving from occasional cooperation with Türkiye to a structured institutional partnership. He outlined a range of possible areas: capacity building, professional exchanges, joint analysis of emerging disinformation trends, improved monitoring, crisis communication, countering extremist narratives, public diplomacy, and arrangements for rapid coordination when major information threats affect either country or their shared interests. This is not a vague expression of goodwill. It is a concrete menu for institutional collaboration. The Minister noted that Türkiye has developed considerable expertise in strategic communication, public diplomacy, and countering disinformation. Its Directorate of Communications, which organized the forum, is widely recognized for its work. Somalia, for its part, has gained substantial practical experience in government communication, crisis communication, and countering extremist narratives in a complex information and security environment. The Ministry’s Strategic Communication Department and Disinformation Office, he said, are ready to work directly with the relevant institutions of the Turkish Presidency. The proposal is an invitation to build a joint system, not just a series of meetings. It recognizes that information threats do not respect borders. A false narrative about the partnership can originate anywhere, spread through global platforms, and affect public opinion in both countries. Only a coordinated, institutional response can effectively counter it.
The Minister’s proposal did not come out of nowhere. It follows a period of intense activity in this field. In early September, the Ministry closed the second National Strategic Communication Forum in Mogadishu, a sign that Somalia is already treating this as a priority. A month earlier, in August, the two countries marked fifteen years since Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s historic visit to Mogadishu, a visit that is still remembered as a turning point in Somalia’s relationship with the outside world. At a time when many foreign embassies and agencies had pulled back, Erdoğan’s arrival signaled that Türkiye was willing to stand with Somalia when it needed friends most. That visit set the tone for everything that followed. Ministers at the anniversary events described a partnership running from a hospital that treats forty thousand patients a month to workshops inside the prison system. These are not abstract diplomatic achievements. They are services that touch real lives. A mother brings her sick child to the Turkish hospital because she knows she will be seen. A young person learns a skill in a workshop and finds a way to support his family. A patient who might have died now has a chance. This is the texture of the relationship that the Minister is trying to protect. It is also the texture that disinformation seeks to distort. Those who spread false narratives about the partnership rarely talk about the hospital or the training workshops. They focus on fears and suspicions, on things that are hidden rather than things that are visible. The Minister’s communication strategy is to reverse that equation, to make the visible benefits impossible to ignore. When people see with their own eyes what the partnership delivers, they become less vulnerable to manipulation. The forum in Mogadishu was therefore not an isolated event. It was part of a continuous effort to ensure that the relationship between Somalia and Türkiye is understood on the basis of evidence, not emotion. It was also a reminder that the partnership has history, weight, and meaning. Fifteen years is a long time in the life of a relationship between states, especially in a region as volatile as the Horn of Africa. That history is worth defending. The Minister’s proposal is, in a sense, a promise not to let that history be rewritten by those who were not part of it.
The Minister closed with an argument that gives the entire proposal its shape. Protecting sovereignty today means protecting not only territory but the information space, public confidence, and the national narrative. In Somalia’s case, these are not abstract concepts. The country is still emerging from decades of conflict, and its state institutions are still earning the trust of their citizens. A false narrative can undo in days what took years to build. A campaign of disinformation can make people doubt their government, their neighbors, and their future. Protecting the partnership with Türkiye, the Minister said, means ensuring its story is told by facts and by the people building it, rather than by those who seek to distort it. This is the heart of the message. The relationship between Somalia and Türkiye is not a secret project or a favor. It is a public good, built through visible work and shared sacrifice. Its story should be told by the Somali nurse who works at the Turkish hospital, by the Somali trainee who learned a trade, by the Turkish engineer who helped build a road, by the Somali soldier who trained alongside Turkish advisors. These are the voices that can defeat disinformation, because they carry the authority of lived experience. The Minister’s call for a structured institutional partnership is ultimately a call for institutional memory and institutional voice. It is a way of ensuring that the story of the partnership is documented, protected, and communicated with the same seriousness as the partnership itself. In a world where information is weaponized, silence is not neutral. It leaves space for lies. The Minister’s message to the forum was that Somalia and Türkiye must occupy that space together, with facts, with transparency, and with confidence. The strategic partnership between the two countries has grown from a moment of solidarity into a comprehensive relationship that touches nearly every sector of Somali life. It has endured because it was built on trust. Now, the challenge is to defend that trust in the open, contested arena of public communication. The forum ended, but the work, as the Minister made clear, is only beginning.