Farah Qawdhan
Hargeisa–The director of Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa, Ms. Edna Adan has publicly asserted that Turkey has lost neutrality when it comes to Somalia and Somaliland.
Ms. Edna Adan has expressed her dismay over Turkey which clearly sides with Somalia in terms of development projects. She said that Turkey has not overhauled a road in Somaliland and has not built a hospital.Ms. Edna held foreign affairs as well as Family Welfare and Social Development ministerial posts in former Riyala’s administration from 2003 to 2006 whereby reiterating that Turkey has not implemented a project in Somaliland. She explicitly said that Somaliland people are aware of the projects and developments that Turkey carried out in the South of Somalia.
The Turkish consular to Somaliland has called for Silanyo administration to shut down Nile Academy which is a school in Hargeisa run by Turkish nationals. Turkey said that the school is run by Fethullah Gulen who are believed to be the ringleaders of the failed coup in Turkey. Ms. Edna responding to the call from Turkish consular, she said that Turkey is exerting pressure on us to protect his interests which she further added that it is unacceptable.
Talking on the best way forward for bringing Somaliland and Turkey’s mutual ties, she stated that Turkey has not set foot in the country and has not so far carried out a single development project. Ms. Edna said with the strongest possible terms that Somaliland is a de facto state where its government and people see eye to eye on the issue of de jure recognition. She added that they are vigilant to protect the interest of the nation while they said that the issue of uniting with greater Somalia is a thing of the past.
For Turkey to have healthy and strong ties with Somaliland, It must first acknowledge the independence of Somaliland, said Edna. She is the director and founder of the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa and an activist and pioneer in the struggle for the abolition of female genital mutilation. She is also President of the Organization for Victims of Torture.
She was married to Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal who was Head of Government in British Somaliland five days prior to Somalia’s independence and later the Prime Minister of Somalia (1967–1969) and President of Somaliland (1993–2002). Edna Adan was born in Hargeisa, the daughter of a prominent Somalilander medical doctor and was trained as a nurse in the United Kingdom at the Borough Polytechnic, nowLondon South Bank University where she is said to be ‘the first Somali girl’ to study in Britain. Other claims by Ismail also include that she is Somalia’s first qualified nurse-midwife and the first Somali woman to drive. She later married Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal, a Somali politician who was elected Prime Minister of Somalia in 1967.