Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (Turkish: Türk İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı, TİKA) is a government department of the Prime Ministry of Turkey. TİKA is responsible for organization of the bulk of Turkey's official development assistance to developing countries.

On 25 December 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) dissolved, which resulted in many countries in Central Asia and Caucasia gaining their independence. Having a common language and a shared social memory and culture with these countries, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, paved the way for the resurgence of dual and regional relations with them. Turkey and the countries in Central Asia consider themselves as one nation containing different countries, and our foreign politics displayed a multilateral and proactive understanding in the region. Our relations with the Turkish speaking countries has become a permanent focus for Turkey and this focus gained in importance in the most recent 20 years of global politics.

In the ’90s, our country’s first priority regarding the issue of Central Asia became the recognition of the young Turkic countries by the international community. This was followed by our country carrying out projects for our cognates living in the newly founded countries of Central Asia in various fields, such as the social, economic and cultural ones. The aid that was given in the beginning, by time turned into long-term projects and cooperation based on development. The need of an organisation that can practise and coordinate the operations to be carried out in this area and for foreign policy priorities arose, and resulted in the establishment of the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) in 1992. With the establishment of the concept of active politics in our foreign policies, TIKA became an implementing intermediary of Turkish foreign policy, particularly in the countries with whom we have shared values, as well as in many other areas and countries.

We can briefly summarise TIKA’s aims in those years as: the procreation of the own social structure of the Turkic Republics, their construction of an identity in a sustainable way, and the remedy of deficiencies of their technical infrastructures. Many projects and activities in the fields of education, health, restoration, agricultural development, finance, tourism, and industry were realised by TIKA. In addition, the first of the TIKA Programme Coordination Offices was inaugurated in Turkmenistan; later on, the number of the offices located in the Eurasian area increased to 6. Turkey’s friendly, fraternal and cooperative hand has also reached out to and is adopted by the countries where we worked with enthusiasm.

TIKA Projects Extend from Technical Infrastructure to Corporate Capacity Increase The character of our work in our flourishing and improving ancestral lands changed by time. TIKA carried out economic, social and cultural activities in its sister countries until 1995, after which it began to concentrate on cooperation in the field of education and culture. We know that having a qualified, well-educated population comes first. If a nation has a good education system and follows developments in science and the technology, one can speak of sustainable development. Therefore, TIKA accelerated its education activities in the ancestral lands after 1995 - schools, libraries and laboratories were built and provided universities with technical equipment.

In a process that started in the 2000s, the world became globalised and the influence of the globalisation was perceived in many areas, from the East to the West. In parallel to the acceleration achieved on the subject of development in the countries with whom we share the same language, the projects that TIKA carried out in these regions have turned into projects that increase the institutional capacities. The projects, that our country and TIKA realise for the ancestral lands with the proper pride of being the inheritors of a common history, still continue.

It was in these days that an important part of the Turkish geography had become rich, gained power and by today has reached a position where it helps instead of asks for help. We, as TIKA, continue to develop projects and carry on the reciprocal sharing of experience.

As a prolongation of our country’s efforts to become an important player in the area and in the world, since the 2000s our conception of foreign policy underwent important changes. In accordance with this change, TIKA enlarged its activity area - it increased the number of Programme Coordination Offices from 12 in the year 2002 to 25 in 2011, and to 33 in 2012. Today, the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency is in service with 33 Programme Coordination Offices in 30 cooperation partner countries. Related to the active and principled foreign policy that we see in our country, the number of countries wherein we carry out projects also increases every passing day. At the basis of its projects, Turkey tries to establish a peaceful environment directed at its close neighbours and achieves this through TIKA. TIKA carries out the task of being a cooperating mechanism for the state institutions and organisations, universities, non-profit organisations and the private sector. In addition it functions as a platform for these actors to come together and it records the development aid carried out by Turkey.

While the development aid of the country consisted of about 85 Millions of USD in 2002, this amount reached 1 Milliard 273 Millions of USD in 2011. TIKA is ranked amongst the Turkish organizations that carry out most technical co-operations with Turkic speaking countries.

Focussing on development collaboration, TIKA works in 100 countries, including the ones where their offices are located. Our country shares her knowledge and experience through TIKA, with many countries from the Pacific to the Central Asia, from the Middle-East and Africa to the Balkans and from Caucasia to South America.

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