Turkey enters Libya quagmire
Turkey’s parliament yesterday passed a bill approving a military deployment to Libya, aimed at shoring up the UN-backed government in Tripoli.
The beleaguered Tripoli government has been under sustained attack since April by military strongman General Khalifa Haftar, who is backed by Turkey’s regional rivals -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office confirmed last Friday that a request for military support had been received from the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).
No details have been given on the scale of the potential deployment, and Vice-President Fuat Oktay told state news agency Anadolu that no date had yet been set.
The bill passed easily through Turkey’s parliament, by 325 votes to 184.
A UN report in November said several countries were violating the arms embargo on Libya in place since the overthrow of its long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Jordan and the UAE regularly supply Haftar’s forces, it said, while Turkey supports the GNA. Turkish and Emirati drones were spotted in Libyan skies during clashes over the summer.
The Libyan conflict is expected to be a key topic of discussion when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Turkey next Wednesday.
Erdogan has repeatedly accused Russia of sending private mercenaries to support Haftar’s forces, though this has been denied by Moscow.
However, Turkey and Russia have managed to work closely on Syria despite supporting opposing sides in that conflict and are expected to seek a similar balancing act with regards to Libya.
Turkey has used its alliance with the Tripoli government to advance other interests. It signed a military cooperation agreement with the GNA during a visit by its leader, Fayez al-Sarraj, to Istanbul in November.
But they also signed a maritime jurisdiction agreement giving Turkey rights to large swathes of the Mediterranean where gas reserves have recently been discovered.
Turkey’s fierce rivalry with the military government in Egypt is seen as another motivating factor behind the planned deployment.
Egypt yesterday strongly condemned the vote. It said any such deployment could “negatively affect the stability of the Mediterranean region” and called on the international community to urgently respond to the move.
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