A Turkish delegation is in Salal region as part of enhanced cooperation with Somaliland.

- The 16 member delegation who arrived overland from Djibouti were received at the Lowyado border point by senior government officials led by the new Salal regional governor Mr. Nuur Osman Guleid, Mayor of Seyla Mr. Mohamed Omar Hadi "Awad", Salal Regional police commander Mohamed Abdi Ahmed among others. The Turkish delegation held with meetings with regional officials in Seyla town where they were briefed on the general situation prevalent in Salal region as pertains to development programs which are the main interest of the government in Ankara.

The Turkish delegation which conveyed their greetings to the president H.E Ahmed Mahmoud Silanyo reciprocated the regional government's briefing by detailing purpose of the visit and what they hope to achieve thus strengthen existing relations between the two countries. The Turks said they were very pleased to have visited Seyla town where their forefathers are buried following their extended stay in the area during the reign of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The delegation revealed their dismayed at the deplorable state of various historical infrastructures put in place by the Ottoman's i.e. Library, Seyla port, Jamaa Mosque, Water cisterns, police lines and Hospital.

The Turks who promised to dispatch an engineer to Seyla in order to assess requirements for rehabilitation of the dilapidated Turkish sites also visited Sa'adadin secondary School where they also promised a scholarship to the top student from the school at any Turkish university of choice. The Turkish government which has been in the forefront of rehabilitating Somalia seems to have diverted part of its high status attention to Somaliland. Several delegations have so far visited and various development support partnership entered upon.

The Ottoman state began as one of many small Turkish states that emerged in Asia Minor during the breakdown of the empire of the Seljuk Turks. The Ottoman Turks began to absorb the other states, and during the reign (1451–81) of Muhammad II they ended all other local Turkish dynasties. The early phase of Ottoman expansion took place under Osman I, Orkhan, Murad I, and Beyazid I at the expense of the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria, and Serbia. Bursa fell in 1326 and Adrianople (the modern Edirne) in 1361; each in turn became the capital of the empire. The great Ottoman victories of Kosovo Field (1389) and Nikopol (1396) placed large parts of the Balkan Peninsula under Ottoman rule and awakened Europe to the Ottoman danger. The Ottoman siege of Constantinople was lifted at the appearance of Timur, who defeated and captured Beyazid in 1402. The Ottomans, however, soon rallied.

The empire, reunited by Muhammad I, expanded victoriously under Muhammad's successors Murad II and Muhammad II. The victory (1444) at Varna over a crusading army led by Ladislaus III of Poland was followed in 1453 by the capture of Constantinople. Within a century the Ottomans had changed from a nomadic horde to the heirs of the most ancient surviving empire of Europe. Their success was due partly to the weakness and disunity of their adversaries, partly to their excellent and far superior military organization. Their army comprised numerous Christians—not only conscripts, who were organized as the corps of Janissaries, but also volunteers. Turkish expansion reached its peak in the 16th cent. under Selim I and Sulayman I (Sulayman the Magnificent).

The breakup of the state gained impetus with the Russo-Turkish Wars in the 18th cent. Egypt was only temporarily lost to Napoleon's army, but the Greek War of Independence and its sequels, the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29 (see Adrianople, Treaty of), and the war with Muhammad Ali of Egypt resulted in the loss of Greece and Egypt, the protectorate of Russia over Moldavia and Walachia, and the semi-independence of Serbia. Drastic reforms were introduced in the late 18th and early 19th cent. By Selim III and Mahmud II, but they came too late. By the 19th cent. Turkey was known as the Sick Man of Europe.

In 1908 the Young Turk movement, a reformist and strongly nationalist group, with many adherents in the army, forced the restoration of the constitution of 1876, and in 1909 the parliament deposed the sultan and put Muhammad V on the throne. In the two successive Balkan Wars (1912–13), Turkey lost nearly its entire territory in Europe to Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and newly independent Albania. The nationalism of the Young Turks, whose leader Enver Pasha gained virtual dictatorial power by a coup in 1913, antagonized the remaining minorities in the empire.

The outbreak of World War I found Turkey lined up with the Central Powers. Although Turkish troops succeeded against the Allies in the Gallipoli campaign (1915), Arabia rose against Turkish rule, and British forces occupied (1917) Baghdad and Jerusalem. In 1918, Turkish resistance collapsed in Asia and Europe. An armistice was concluded in October, and the Ottoman Empire came to an end. The Treaty of Sèvres (see Sèvres, Treaty of) confirmed its dissolution. With the victory of the Turkish nationalists, who had refused to accept the peace terms and overthrew the sultan in 1922, modern Turkey's history began.

Source: Somalilandsun