Parliament was hastily summoned by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and agreed on Thursday (January 2nd) to the deployment of Turkish troops in Libya in support of the Tripoli National Unity Government (GNA), threatened by an offensive by the warlord Khalifa Haftar, supported by Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The implication of Turkey risks worsening this situation of war by proxy which undermines the country.
The one-year term voted by parliamentarians leaves Erdogan alone with the power to decide the composition and size of the forces to be deployed. The sending of a few hundred Syrian mercenaries supported by Turkish army instructors is not satisfactory for the Turkish president, who sees the bigger picture. The intervention will take place “On the ground, at sea and in the air if necessary”, he warned after having signed, on November 27, 2019, a double agreement for cooperation, military and delimitation of maritime borders in the Mediterranean, with Faïez Sarraj, the head of the GNA.
The stated goals are ambitious, the text of the motion thus evokes the need to “Protect the interests of Turkey in the Mediterranean, prevent the transit of illegal migrants, prevent terrorist organizations and armed groups from proliferating, provide humanitarian aid to the Libyan people”.
Economic and strategic interests of Turkey
Through this projection of power, Ankara also wants to defend its economic and strategic interests. Economic, because Turkish companies invested nearly 25 billion dollars in Libya during the time of Muammar Gaddafi; strategic, because the agreement with Tripoli on the delimitation of maritime borders, although legally inadmissible, widens its aims over large areas of the eastern Mediterranean rich in hydrocarbons and disputed by Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel.
The pro-government press justifies the future intervention. “Without Turkish participation, the Libyan capital will fall, dragging the country deeper into the civil war”wrote Burhanettin Duran, the daily’s featured editorial writer Sabah (December 30, 2019 edition).
The opposition, on the other hand, denounces the adventurism of the president, who is ready to drag the country into a spiral whose outcome could be fatal. “We don’t want the terrible situation that has developed in Syria to be repeated in another country”, said Unal Çeviköz, vice-president of the Republican People’s Party (or CHP, to Cumhuriyet Halk Parties), after a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoglu, who tried unsuccessfully to convince the Republicans to vote in favor of the motion.
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