SENEGAL-TÜRKIYE COOPERATION: media diplomacy to strengthen the Dakar-Ankara axis September 3, 2026

Visiting Sspp “Le Soleil” on Wednesday, Türkiye’s ambassador to Senegal, Dilşad Kırbaşlı Karaoğlu, reaffirmed her country’s availability to support the strengthening of bilateral relations between the two states. The general director of the national daily, Lamine Niang, called for building a media ecosystem capable of promoting the partnership between Dakar and Ankara.

The Türkiye ambassador to Senegal paid a working and friendship visit to the premises of Sspp “Le Soleil” on Wednesday. Dilşad Kırbaşlı Karaoğlu and his delegation were received by the General Director, Lamine Niang, surrounded by his colleagues. Dilşad Kırbaşlı Karaoğlu, Ambassador of Türkiye to Senegal, expressed her country’s availability to support the process of rapprochement between the two states.
Senegal, she specified, has strengthened its partnership with Türkiye since the visit of the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye (from October 31 to November 2, 2024). “We intend to move forward with Le Soleil in different aspects of bilateral cooperation, relying on the six Turkish institutions and organizations present in Senegal. We believe that these areas of partnership will find a favorable response in Ankara, for the good of our two nations,” she said. The diplomat also underlined the embassy’s desire to increase events in 2027 on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. “We want to organize events such as the release of a special magazine and an exhibition to commemorate our relations established in 1962. These initiatives will provide an unwavering foundation for promoting a mutually beneficial partnership,” she concluded.
The general director of Sspp “Le Soleil” returned to the need to strengthen cooperation between Türkiye and Senegal in terms of information production. A dynamic which, he specified, should make it possible to build a media ecosystem capable of promoting the partnership between the two countries. “We welcome the model of cooperation between Senegal and Türkiye. It is a model of South-South cooperation that has shaped unwavering ties between our two countries. Therefore, we must expand this field of collaboration to media diplomacy, which will be beneficial for our two nations,” he declared.
Lamine Niang listed several areas of media cooperation likely to consolidate relations between the newspaper and the Türkiye embassy in Senegal. “We hope that this new dynamic of collaboration will take into account the training of our journalists, the digitization of our archives and the strengthening of our vehicle fleet. We are also counting on these links with Türkiye to revalue the land base of “Soleil” (a plot of 5,000 m² in the city center) in order to make it a significant asset for the newspaper,” he underlined.