Why Turkish intervention in Libya damages Italy in particular?
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Alaina
- . August 5, 2020
- . Update: August 5, 2020 2:03 am
While the Turks and mercenaries sent by the Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Libya are doing good and bad weather, Italy seems to have no political weight anymore in its former colony. Support for Fayez al-Serraj turned out to be a big mistake for Rome, given that Turkish intelligence now fully manages Libyan internal affairs.Ankara has already collected $ 16 billion in compensation for damages caused by the NATO intervention in 2011, while the files of the Italian companies are not even on the table.If Italy was sure that it could trust the Muslim Brotherhood, now it must necessarily change its mind.
The Italian newspaper “Il Giornale” recently revealed that a group of Italian soldiers, arrived for a change of the contingent in Misurata, which manages the field hospital, was sent back on the pretext that they did not have an entry visa from the Libyan Government. The report adds that in Tripoli the men of the commander of the Italian military mission Miasit, including the security, are disarmed because Serraj have never authorized them to have a gun with them.
According to the Italian newspaper, on the afternoon of July 30, a Hercules C 130 took off from Pisa and landed at 5:30 pm in Misrata with about thirty Italian soldiers on board. However, some soldiers from the Celio and the brigade Julia, were denied to disembark by the Libyan authorities.
The reason is that they didn’t have an entry visa on their passports. The newspaper also quotes a military source, who affirms that there are small and big, but also dangerous signals, that the Turks do not want Italy into Libya. In Misurata, where Italy had the field hospital for years, the Turks set their sights on the airport. Senator Enrico Aimi, head of the Forza Italia group in the Foreign Commission, denounced the hoax of the soldiers sent home, announcing a parliamentary question.
But that’s not all there is another reason why the Turkish intervention in Libya mainly damages Italy. That has to do with Rome’s main concern: immigration. Erdogan not only controls Tripoli and Misrata, but has also installed modern defense systems and military equipment in the western base of al-Watiya, after coordinating the operations in Sabratha and Sormon against the Libyan National Army.
These two centers represent the main hubs from which migrants leave. By controlling this area, Erdogan can speed up departures on death boats to the Italian coast as a weapon of blackmail against Europe.
