Mercenaries in Libya is Erdogan’s card to blackmail Europe.
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Roshan Amiri
- . February 21, 2020
- . Update: February 21, 2020 7:35 am
While the Libyan parties and the international community are seeking to find a solution to the Libyan crisis, Turkey continues to send new batches of mercenaries to Libya, in an attempt to fuel the conflict and prolong the crisis to ensure continued chaos and violence.
Since the outbreak of fighting in the Libyan capital Tripoli between the Libyan National Army and forces loyal to the Al-Wefaq government, in the wake of the first launch of a military operation aimed at liberating the city from the power of armed militias, Turkey has thrown all its weight into the Libyan conflict, as its moves to ignite the conflict accelerated to start sending arms shipments through aircraft Unmanned aerial vehicles to transport mercenaries and terrorists to Libyan territory.
Despite the approval of Erdogan’s party and the Turkish parliament, to send Turkish troops to Libya, the Turkish president has turned to rely on mercenaries to plunge Libya into chaos and spread violence. Media reports have escalated about transfers of pro-Ankara fighters from Syria to Libya to support the Saraj government in Facing the Libyan National Army.
The transfer of mercenaries was confirmed recently by the President of the Presidential Council, Fayez al-Sarraj, who justified this by saying, “We do not hesitate to deal with any party to defeat this attack in any way.”, In an answer to a question about the use of Syrian mercenaries to fight in the ranks of his forces, during an interview with British BBC TV.
The new development in Erdogan’s mercenary case in Libya came with the escalation of warnings of the danger of these elements that extend beyond Libya to reach Europe. Media reports spoke about the defection of a number of Syrian fighters recruited by Turkey in Libya, where they laid down their weapons upon their arrival in the Libyan territories, and they applied Asylum in Italy.
The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, confirmed that the Observatory had learned that “some of the fighters who belonged to the pro-Turkish factions who had gone to Libya as part of the process of transporting mercenaries there by Turkey had started the journey out of Libyan lands towards Italy.” At least 17 of them have already arrived in Italy, and he added, “According to their families and those close to them, those who left have intentionally taken this route as a bridge to cross to Italy. Once they got there, they abandoned their weapons and headed to Italy, just as a section Of them went to Algeria to be the exit gate to Europe. “
For its part, the security room in the Libyan city of Sabratha (west of Tripoli) announced the arrest of five Syrians mercenaries who were being asked to fight against the Libyan army who were on their way to secret migration towards the coast of Italy. The room affiliated with the Ministry of Interior of the interim government said that the arrested confessed that they registered their names among the mercenaries transported by Turkey to Libya, with the aim of going to Europe.
Al-Sarraj’s confession comes days after the UN envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salama, acknowledged in an interview with Reuters the presence of Syrian fighters in Tripoli. These recent confessions come to confirm beyond any doubt the validity of the reports that confirmed Erdogan’s mercenary flow to Libya and was accompanied by pictures and videos, which the Al-Wefaq government tried at first to deny, but Sarraj’s confession settled the matters.
