Why Turkey is Getting Involved in Libya

By Henry Srebrnik, [Fredericton, NB] Daily Gleaner

In the Italian-Turkish War of 1911-1912 the Ottoman Empire lost its Libyan territories of Cyrenaica, Tripoli and Fezzan to Italy. 

Since Libya was the sole Mediterranean region not claimed by another European power, it was the only territory Italy could dominate. The Italians ruled their colony until their own defeat in the Second World War.

Almost eleven decades since the Turks lost Libya, does Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan want it back? After all, unlike his predecessors, he has a fondness for the lost glories of Ottoman Turkey, once an empire to be reckoned with.

On Dec. 10, Erdogan announced that he was willing to deploy troops in the ongoing Libyan civil war on behalf of Libya’s weak and ineffective Government of National Accord (GNA), formed in the capital, Tripoli, in 2015. It is backed by the United Nations and is internationally recognized, but its writ barely runs even inside the capital.

It is under attack by General Khalifa Haftar, who heads the self-styled Libyan National Army from his power base in Tobruk, in eastern Libya. Haftar, backed by a Tobruk administration that includes its own parliament elected in 2014, has now undertaken an assault on Tripoli, in the west. 

Erdogan criticized those nations that backed a “putschist general” and “warlord” and promised to support Prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj’s GNA “much more effectively.” He censured Europe for “betraying its own core values” by “leaving Libya at the mercy of a warlord.”

On Nov. 27, Ankara signed two separate accords with the GNA, on security and military cooperation and on maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean. 

Turkey’s parliament then approved a bill allowing troops to be deployed in Libya. Erdogan is also backing the al-Sarraj government with arms and military training. 

Why is Libya in such a mess? The country was ruled with an iron fist until 2011 by Moammar Gadhafi. That year, NATO-backed rebels defeated and murdered Gadhafi, but his downfall produced, not a democratic state, but years of anarchy and tribal warfare. 

Since then, warring factions have fought a bitter war to maintain power in the North African country.

The political vacuum has drawn in numerous players, including the former colonial power, Italy, as well as France; and Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). More recently, Russia has become involved.

Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, the Saudis and Russia support Haftar, while Italy and Qatar favour Fayez al-Sarraj’s regime. The Egyptians, in particular, want to control their western neighbour, and fear terrorism on their border. 

Egypt and the UAE have worried about the ascent of political Islam in Libya, so they quickly backed Haftar and his avowed “anti-Islamist, anti-terrorist” agenda. Qatar, on the other hand, supports the Muslim Brotherhood, as does the latest entry in this conflict, Turkey. 

Meanwhile, Haftar’s fighters have made small gains in some southern suburbs of Tripoli with the help of Russian, Chadian and Sudanese mercenaries, as well as sophisticated drones shipped by the UAE. In early January, Haftar’s LNA captured the country’s third biggest city, Sirte.

Although Europe and the United States have warned the GNA that forming closer relations with Turkey would endanger its support in the West, authorities in Tripoli felt they had no alternative after months of renewed fighting.

On Jan. 19, Germany hosted an international conference in Berlin, with diplomats from the United States, Russia, Turkey, France, Italy, Egypt, and the UAE, asking participants to declare their intention to end foreign interference in Libya’s internal affairs. 

Attendees included Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompano represented Washington.

But although both Libyan warring sides were present, they did not meet. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the two sides were briefed and consulted by the other parties.

Participants were asked to adhere to the UN Security Council’s arms embargo in Libya, which has been in effect since 2012. It’s doubtful many will, though.

Increasingly the conflict has become another proxy war. Further escalation could open the door to Ankara and Moscow supplanting the West and the UN in the battle to determine Libya’s future.