Turkiye’s TIKA carries out 30,000 projects worldwide in 30 years

By Behlul Cetinkaya

ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has carried out more than 30,000 projects in 170 countries over the last 30 years.

Operations of the state-run aid agency have covered a wide range of areas – from education to agriculture, access to clean water, and restoration.

Established in 1992, TIKA has boosted its 12 offices in 2002 worldwide to 62 today, according to the agency.

It develops projects based on the priorities and needs of countries, calling it Turkish-type Development Assistance Model.

The development aid agency implements this model in a broad area – from Central Asia to South America, and its most important projects are carried out in the field of health.

With the initiatives of TIKA, which supports not only health services but also projects such as the training of health personnel and the development of health infrastructure, over 7,600 surgeries have been performed and some 111,200 medical examinations have been conducted in Africa.

It launched a new diagnosis and treatment center in Gagauzia, an autonomous territorial unit Moldova.

The aid agency also built the 180-bed Palestine-Turkiye Friendship Hospital in Gaza. It opened hospitals in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia as well.

In 2020, TIKA added the fight against COVID-19 to its operations and provided thousands of medical equipment to over 100 countries.

- 5,000 tons of annual olive production in Gaza plant

As part of agriculture-related work, the agency founded an olive processing plant in Gaza’s southern Khan Yunis city which benefits 3,500 farmers producing 5,000 tons of olives annually. In Mongolia, the agency founded a winter greenhouse on an area of ​​400 square meters (4,305 square feet).

Among TIKA's primary areas of operation is education as well. The aid agency, which carries out work in various areas such as vocational training, orphanage building, and establishment and development of educational infrastructure, has implemented 5,000 projects in the field of education over the past 30 years.

One of these projects is the renovation of the all-girl high school at the Al-Wehdat camp in Jordan, where 15,000 Palestinian refugees receive education.

The TIKA also built the Niger-Turkiye Friendship School and the dormitory with a capacity for 648 students in 2018.

The agency also continues its efforts on cultural and historical heritage.

In North Macedonia, TIKA reconstructed the house of Ali Riza Bey, the father of Turkiye's founding leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

In Mongolia, the agency conducted the landscaping and conservation of Tonyukuk Monument. It also restored the Ahmet Yesevi Tomb in Kazakhstan and the Drina Bridge Bosnia-Herzegovina.