Erdogan Escalates Dangerous Drive for Turkish Military Intervention in Libya

Dec. 26, 2019 (EIRNS)—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that he would send troops to Libya to defend the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli against the military campaign being waged against it by Gen. Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army. “We have given and will continue to give all kinds of support to the Tripoli government, which is fighting a putschist general backed by various European and Arab countries,” said Erdogan provincial leaders of his AKP party in Ankara. “Since we’ve been invited there, we will accept the request to send soldiers,” he said, reported Al-Monitor. He also said that he expects the Turkish Parliament to vote on a motion approving the troop deployment as early as Jan. 8.

The problem is it’s not actually clear whether the GNA has made such a request. Fathi Bashagha, the Tripoli-based government’s Interior Minister, told reporters in Tunis today, shortly after Erdogan’s speech, that the GNA will officially request military support from Turkey if the war over the capital escalates.

As for where some of the troops might actually come from, the Syrian government in Damascus charged yesterday that the Turkish army is preparing to send some members of its proxy Syrian National Army from northern Hasaka to Libya. Syria’s official SANA news agency quoted civil sources as saying that the Turkish occupation forces continue withdrawing mercenaries from Ras al-Ayn city in Hasaka’s northern countryside, expecting to dispatch them to Libya through Turkish territories.