TOPSHOT – Turkish army tanks gather close to the Syrian border on January 21, 2018 at Hassa, in Hatay province. AFP PHOTO / BULENT KILIC (Photo credit should read BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed on January 5 that Turkish military units had started moving to Libya to support the Government of National Accord (GNA) and provide “stability.”
In an interview with CNN Turk, Erdogan said that several units will be deployed in Libya, but with no Turkish soldiers fighting. According to the Turkish President, senior Turkish military personnel will be coordinating operations in the Arab country. A headquarters for the Turkish Armed Forces will also be established there.
“Turkey and Libya could work with international companies to search for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean,” al-Arabia quoted the Turkish President as saying.
On January 3, Erdogan signed a bill allowing the deployment of Turkish troops in Libya. The bill was approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly a day earlier, following four hours of discussions and negotiations.
The UN-recognized GNA is now facing a large-scale attack by the Libyan National Army (LNA), that’s backed by Egypt and the UAE. Pro-government forces are holding onto their positions in the country’s capital, Tripoli, and several towns in outskirt.
As Erdogan clarified that Turkish soldiers won’t be carrying out the fighting in Libya, this task will likely be pinned on Turkey’s Syrian proxies and private military contractors. Ankara has been deploying militants of the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA) in Libya since December 2019.
By intervening in Libya, Turkey likely hopes to secure the recent maritime agreement with the GNA, which grants its drilling vessels much freedom in eastern Mediterranean. The agreement’s biggest critics, Egypt and Greece, will likely try to act against the Turkish intervention in Libya.
If Turkey wishes to prevail, she must put her own troops in the firing lines. If Erdogan does not wish to to that, its better not to go to Libya.
Proxy wars are wars where maniacal thugs are indemnified from prosecution for a long list of heinous crimes and all proxy wars beget are absolute hatred of those nations who use them as a cheap and safe way to plunder.
Such hatred lasts for generations as the US is now finding out.
Qatar is backing Turkey with endless cash, and we know from Syria they have an endless supply of Muslim Brotherhood jihadist believers they can hire. Libya not only has tons of oil still in the ground, but with all that western Med., off shore ! ! !
Too much money to resist.
Many Libyans still nurse an inherited deep hatred towards the Italian colonizers (1911-1942) for their use of black mercenaries from Eritrea and Abyssinia to wipe out the resistance (Omar Mukhtar-Lion of the Desert). Similarily Italians remember the savage, relentless atrocities of the French colonial Arabs from North Africa killing, raping, plundering during the advance up Italy 1944-45.
It is also recorded that Black US and Brown french troops were the major units responsible for rape in during Western military advances and post war zones of WW2.
The French colonial goumiers were the worst, at least the US Army black troops were generally in labor non-combat roles and under discipline – unlike the Moroccans who were given full authorization to rape and plunder after taking a town – their method was Kill-Rape-Plunder-Kill then move on – in that order.
what did NATO do after they killed khadaffi. they did not help restore the country, they ran off with their oil contract secured and took all gold reserves of the country. supports GNA with weapons offcourse. internal dissatisfation in NATO between France & Italy about who gets control over the oil.
meanwhile russia supports another faction in Libya, a military dicator like in egypt, together with France, Arab states, israel.
and suprise suprise, seems like US was giving weapons to both GNA & LNA because guess what, they didnt knew who to pick. its a 50/50 fight so why not just bet on both of them instead of one. (can draw a line in syria, US-Turkish alliance, US-Kurds.
then turkey sees a chance, for oil & gas drilling, and boom, another player joins the war for resources.
must be so sad to be born in the middle east at this moment, born in chaos. chaos created by the super powers.
Entire Iraq crisis can be blamed on US. after Saddam was put down from power, they ‘relieved’ lot of iraqi soldiers from duty, and left them with no job or $$$. most of them joined the insurgency against US, and ISIS was created armed with HMMV’s, US made weapons they brought chaos to the region.
when obama was pres, 15.000 bombs were dropped on syria, not a single one targeted the oilfields & refinery’s under control of ISIS. it was from those locations that isis was transporting oil from syria to turkey. see it as a reward for turkey for letting all logistic support they gave to FSA, & ISIS. trained militias in Adana to then to be send to Iraq & Syria.
I agree 100% with your post.
There is another conundrum to all of this internecine Western cat fighting for the control of oil reserves and production.
IF wind, solar and wave generation of electricity are to be the future of mankind, and the hot air statements from Western politicians are to be believed, WHY are all of the Western Nations spending billions to subjugate and murder the people of oil producing nations in order to control the oil supplies of the globe?
Turkish soldiers are rubbish, they are like monkeys with guns in ‘planet of the Apes’ , that’s why Erdogan won’t use them. He is just happy they dont turn against him self !
Turks are peasants and the only fighters in the Ottoman empire were kidnapped Jannisaries. Turkish failure to defeat the Kurds or recent disaster in Syria basically conforms to your colorful description of the Turks. They were only built up by western media as they served as NATO cannon fodder and now there is less need for them.
Most, if not all NATO forces are like this in my opinion. They all like to beat their chests during exercises, BUT all expect wars without casualties :)
This is my direct experience
The ball is now firmly in Egypt’s court, either accept Turkish/Ottoman style hegemony over the Arab world or resist the Turkish occupation forces.
It will be a tennis match for a while I think.
Turkish forces also did the same in Syria…and got surrounded. Let’s hope that they take enough terrorists from Idlib to protect them this time.
Well it seem like Libya is more benefit for edrogsE, it energy rich and the government his backing is tecorgnise by United nations. He’s not facing the Russian or Iranians or syrian in Libya and the only obstacle is Egypt’s cause that is Egypt backyard and Egypt records the opposition.
Egypt was never independent. it was handed over from UK TO US. SUEZ canal is too important in geo politics, so it would be stupid to make a country like egypt ‘independent’.
when they had their arab spring, and decided to let the people vote, it turned out the egyptians didn’t really liked the west that much, and voted for Mursi. Israel saw this as a major threat because mursi’s clan was affilated with muslim brotherhood. US did everthing they could to get another military dicator installed like moebarrak. Egypt is a puppet state. just like saudi arabia is together with the entire gulf states.
Thats a barel of baloney what you said. Egypt IS INDEPENDENT just fine. Just look at where they get their newest weapons from.
Russia China France. And Trump can yell and shout all he wants, and he does.
Erdogone follows the tactic of What Putin did in Syria. US & UK acted meek, so Putin prevailed, without putting Russian soldiers on line of fire. Now if Egypt acts meek, Erdogone will prevail. If not, oh well, Erdogone is gone…