• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Turkey Drives a Hard Bargain in Libya (Part 2)

Aug 14, 2020 10:00 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

The Turkish entry into Libya’s civil war on the side of the GNA has provoked other foreign powers to either threaten to join in, or actually to do so, on the side of Haftar’s LNA.

Now the Libyan side of the story can be told in more details. We know that since Turkey has escalated the conflict in Libya, which previously was a ramshackle civil war with limited backing from a plethora of foreign powers, the Russians have sent warplanes, and Egypt has threatened to intervene.

In short, Turkey’s involvement has made Libya a much larger conflict with stakes that now link to all of Europe and the Middle East. It has become a testing ground for Turkish drones, Russian air defense and Chinese armed drones, and has brought Egypt, the UAE, Greece and France closer together to complain about Turkey’s role.

Yes, it’s true, Turkey’s intervention in Libya has made the civil war a wider conflict. Turkey’s intervention provoked Russia, beginning in May, to send warplanes to help General Haftar’s LNA stop the GNA in its Turkish-aided push eastward to Sirte and beyond. Egypt’s General el-Sisi, who had already been supplying war materiel to the LNA, announced that if the GNA forces took Sirte – a “red line” for Cairo – then Egypt would send in its own troops to help the LNA. But as yet Egypt has not sent a single fighter. The UAE’s role has not changed: before Turkish forces arrived, the UAE had already been supplying the LNA with money and weapons and continues to do so. Greece and France have not entered the conflict themselves, but both have complained loudly about Erdogan’s intervention in Libya’s civil war.

The AP reports assert that Turkey sent up to 3,800 mercenaries and some troops to support Libya’s GNA, which is run by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj.

“They took advantage of our weakness at the time,” the Libyan officials now say.

This has shocked and angered the pro-Ankara media in Turkey which is all pro-government and which has been sold a populist, militarist, religious narrative by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turks are “shocked and angered” at what they see as the ungrateful attitude of the Libyans of the GNA, who were rescued from defeat in Tripoli by the Turkish troops, Syrian mercenaries, and Turkish armed drones. The Turkish public had previously been told by Erdogan’s tame press that the Libyan people were delighted to have the Turks in their country; when their true attitude was found to be quite otherwise, the Turks were furious. In fact, the GNA was not at all delighted with the hard bargain Libya struck for its military intervention but, with Haftar’s men about to take Tripoli, felt it had no choice but to accept his terms.

For the pro-government media in Turkey, the adventure in Libya was part of Ottoman-era rights, and Turkish media claims there are “Turks” in Libya that need defending.

This neo-Ottoman dream of reasserting Turkish influence in former Ottoman lands in North Africa and the Middle East makes the Arabs, who have a historic memory of their mistreatment at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, very anxious. The Ottoman Caliphate, which the Turks look back on as a glorious time — as for them it was — is remembered by the Arabs as centuries of humiliation.

As for the Turkish claim about there still being “Turks” in Libya who needed defending, this is an exaggeration. About 1.4 million “Turks” – the descendants of Turks who over the centuries settled in Libya but retained the Turkish language, culture, and self-identification — live in the country; their center is Misrata, where 270,000 of the 400,000 Misratis consider themselves “Turks.” Until the Turkish government raised the matter, Libyan “Turks” were not known to need the protection of the Turkish military. Though clashes along ethnic lines – Arabs versus Turks — have been very occasionally reported in the past, no evidence of widespread anti-Turk persecution exists. But the claim by Turkish officials about imperiled Turks in Libya needing assistance helped to solidify popular support in Turkey for Erdogan’s North African adventure.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which is linked to Hamas and Qatar which Ankara supports, also wants Turkey in Libya

Of course the MB wants Turkey in Libya. Erdogan is a stout defender of the MB, whose views he shares. The MB has been a part of the GNA coalition since it began. General Haftar, on the other hand, is well-known for his secular stance – why, he’s even been in secret talks with Israel, which has supplied him with military supplies, including night vision equipment and sniper rifles – and for his ferocious opposition to the MB. That’s a main reason for the support General Haftar receives from Egypt, which rightly regards the MB as a mortal enemy of the regime. Haftar is also a friend to the United States. In his exile, let’s remember, he lived in the U.S. for twenty years, just outside Langley, Virginia, and was employed by the C.I.A. as a consultant on Libyan and North African affairs. He’s the most pro-American leader modern Libya has ever had. His secularism, his outreach to Israel, his alliance with the moderate UAE, his pro-American stance, are all reasons for Erdogan to dislike him, and for the American government to support him, though so far it unaccountably refuses to do.

So Turkey’s media called the Libyan war a “revolution” like the Arab Spring, fighting against “warlords.”

If the Turkish-backed GNA wins in Libya, it won’t be a forward-looking “revolution,” but a going backwards, an overturning of whatever secularism had been attained in Libya, and a return to a much more Islamic society, promoted by the Islamists who have already burrowed deep within the GNA. Haftar is indeed a warlord, by temperament a strongman. In that respect, the Turks might be dismayed to realize, he’s very much in the authoritarian mold of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, if he only had had a military background, would himself be described as a “warlord.”

But it now turns out that Ankara was pressuring Sarraj for a year for the energy and maritime deal. Turkey was the only country really ready to give support.

“Islamists inside Sarraj’s administration” also supported the deal.

The Islamists inside the GNA of course were delighted to deal with a fellow supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, President Erdogan. And being less Libyan nationalists than they are pan-Islamists, the deal struck between Erdogan and the GNA, so favorable financially to Islamist Turkey, would not bother them.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, Hugh Fitzgerald, Libya, Turkey Tagged With: Recep Tayyip Erdogan


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Aug 14, 2020 at 10:31 am

    The devil is in the details of the contract. Turkey is planning to stay in Libya. The camel has its head and fore-limbs in the tent of Libya. Camels bite. Just try to get the Turkish camel out.

    • Aleks1988 says

      Aug 14, 2020 at 10:41 am

      I think, at this point, one can already see that a second Lepanto or Vienna, will be quite inevitable.

      However, it will be necessary to oust that Erdevil from power.

      • mortimer says

        Aug 14, 2020 at 11:02 am

        Erdolf is one of the dictators in the East. I would give him another 10 years at most. Then, a coup will take place led by his many enemies and younger people who despise him. The internet is the way to expose Erdolf and turn the people against him. He is poisoning Turkey’s relationships with other countries and hurting its economy. The Turkish industrialists and financiers will have to lead this revolution or they will see their countries further ruined by Erdolf’s pipe dreams and madness.

        • elee says

          Aug 14, 2020 at 11:16 am

          Turkish industrialists and financiers will fully back Erdogan, either from honest conviction or to avoid expropriation.

        • gravenimage says

          Aug 14, 2020 at 9:00 pm

          Erdogan has been purging groups that might stand against him–including the military.

    • john smith says

      Aug 14, 2020 at 1:52 pm

      True mortimer, Turkey is definitely planning to stay in Libya.

  2. Bob Smith says

    Aug 14, 2020 at 11:48 am

    It’s the ME, what’s new.

    Muslim vs muslim. It doesn’t get any better than this.

  3. Kepha says

    Aug 14, 2020 at 4:59 pm

    Again, after Bush II tamed Qaddafi, our infinitely competent Obama and Shrillary had him overthrown. Now, Libya is a huge, solutionless mess. We have a dual US-Libyan national Haftar fighting the government we supposedly recognize. Maybe it would be better if it divided east and west?

  4. Boycott Turkey says

    Aug 14, 2020 at 8:49 pm

    Erdogan set to fail like he did when he fell of the horse and it kicked him https://youtu.be/FKPRvMV2SL8

  5. gravenimage says

    Aug 14, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    Turkey Drives a Hard Bargain in Libya (Part 2)
    …………..

    More trolling for a Caliphate…

  6. jewdog says

    Aug 15, 2020 at 7:53 am

    I’ve read that France has sent warships off Libya to counter the Turkish maritime grab there. The US’s passivity in all this is a disgrace, thanks to Trump and his obsequious bowing and scraping to Erdogan, as well as to our feckless State Department. In any case, merci Monsieur Macron.

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on Iranian top dogs approve bill to end UN nuclear inspections, increase enrichment
  • gravenimage on Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks
  • gravenimage on Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks
  • Infidel on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • Infidel on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.