1st Istanbul International Geography Congress Proceedings Book
Piracy activities and geopolitics of gulf of Aden from the Ottoman period to present
Tarık DemirWhen historical data are analyzed, it is seen that because of the Gulf of Aden’s strategic waterway/chokepoint, various forces are subject to sovereignty struggle. The forces that controlled this waterway tried to increase their political power capacity by gaining a more advantageous position in terms of economic and military power capacity compared to their rivals. Piracy/bandit activities, which are the seaside terror activities, have been used by the forces wishing to gain control over the region to neutralize the political power capacities of the sovereign forces in the region. The Gulf of Aden and its surroundings, which came under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, began to enter the sphere of influence of Portugal and France and Italy, respectively, with the opening of the Suez Canal in Portugal in 1869 with the beginning of geographical discoveries. In this period, it can be said that a parallelism was observed between the Western powers’ policy of dominating the region and the emergence of piracy activities. Today, within the framework of the hegemony struggle between the USA and China, piracy activities that started to appear again in the Gulf of Aden and its vicinity caused attention to be turned to this strategic waterway again.