Somaliland-Somalia Talks to Resume with Turkey and Others as Mediators

The Turkish new Special Envoy for Somalia – Somaliland talks, the Former Turkish Ambassador to Somalia, Dr Olgan Bekar, has traveled to both Somalia and Somaliland capitals last week to encourage the leaders to resume their self-determination and reconciliation dialogue that stalled in March 2015 due to lack of progress.

According to the sources close to both parties, sides have welcomed the reopening of the talks and expected that Turkey will play a key role in the process . The Envoy also commented that his proposal of creating a group of countries including US, UK, Sweden and EU to act as ‘ Guarantors of the Talks’ have been accepted by the parties.

However, the sources close to both capitals have also revealed different striking points that Ambassador Bekar did not comment on. Somaliland President , Musa Bihi Abdi, has demanded that the meditation team should be Turkey and Sweden with the centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) providing technical support , and also accepted the guarantors role as a support group. Source to close to Somali Federal Government has told the media that Mogadishu ideally wants the talks to be a low key and locally driven, and therefore doesn’t like to internationalize it with perhaps the some technical support from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Mogadishu may also be happy with Djibouti convening such meetings.

Mogadishu, Ambassador Olgan Bekar, has met Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad as supposed to President Mohamed Farmaajo, which makes the assertion that Mogadishu accepts Turkish mediation idea less reliable. In both Hargeisa and Mogadishu, the two presidents personally hold the duke of the talks..

If the parties agree on the proposed mediation of the trio and wider support group, the talks may resume soon .A time Somali Federal Government and Somaliland are preparing tough elections. Issues such upper space management, aid allocation and foreign investment may be starting points for discussion before serious political issues are talked about .