General Haftar. Screenshot from AfricaNews report
Ankara is playing with fire in Libya
Just like Suleiman the Magnificent five centuries ago, the Turkish leader Recep Erdogan launched an offensive in North Africa. Ankara approved the dispatch of Turkish troops to Libya as expected. It will be a campaign with an unknown outcome and a high risk, says German journalist Jürgen Liminski.
Published: January 6, 2020, 4:11 am
The fighting situation in the civil war country is confused and the militias in Tripoli are particularly unpredictable.
Libya was where the slave trade flourished in pirate nests and rulers ruled with brutal force, only a few centuries ago.
The situation is similar today, says Liminski. “Libya has broken down into its tribal structures, foreign powers are trying to harness the wealth – geopolitical situation, oil and gas.” While Russia and France support General Haftar, Turkey has now stepped into the fray.
If Erdogan succeeds in at least stabilizing the opponent, the Sarraj government, he will be given a second lever to control the flow of migrants, with which he can blackmail the EU. There are currently more than 700 000 “refugees” – mainly from Africa – in Libya waiting to come to Europe. If they succeed in entering the EU, many more will follow.
To prevent this, Erdogan could offer Europe to his country’s weak economy with billions.
It is more than a regional showdown, since the Mediterranean will soon be witnessing a proxy war that will also impact directly on Europe’s migration policy and energy supply. Europe can thus be put under great pressure through North Africa.
The vote in the Turkish Parliament was supposed to have taken place only next week. But Russian President Putin’s scheduled visit to Ankara ostensibly pushed Erdogan to present him with fait accompli of a parliamentary license.
And the planned Libya conference in Berlin, for which no date, programme or participants have been listed, is currently nothing more than a vague idea.
Erdogan’s presence in Libya could virtually exert an imaginary Turkish influence on the oil and gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean – against Cyprus, Greece and international law.
But in Erdogan’s calculation there are many unknowns, for example Russia and France, argues Liminski.
Militia chiefs, the descendants of the tribal princes and pirates, are not impressed by political slogans. They will not allow Erdogan lay claim to their lucrative businesses involving human trafficking and oil. It could become a wild ride for the new Ottoman leader.
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.
-
LuciusAnnaeusSeneca
Europe
Judiciary in a hurry to move against Salvini
It appears that the Italian judiciary is in a hurry to move against former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The offices of the investigating magistrate of Catania have already received the official request of the prosecutor to set a preliminary hearing in the context of the proceeding against the Salvini "kidnapping" case.
The grip of Soros on the ECHR revealed by French weekly
ParisIn its latest issue, a French weekly revealed the extent of the influence of Georges Soros, the Hungarian billionaire at the head of the NGO network Open Society Foundations, on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
European Commissioner of the Interior defends asylum after ECHR ruling
BrusselsThe European Commissioner of the Interior defended the right of migrants to ask for asylum, and even though this right “cannot be offered at each meter of the border” it should be, she argued.
Orban: ‘It’s forbidden to say so in Europe, but migration is an organised invasion’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday warned of a rise in the number of organised groups of migrants attempting to enter the country as summer approaches as migration pressure increases on the country's southern border.
More than 120 daily stabbing attacks in France
ParisIn total, between 2015 and 2017, some 44 000 people were victims of a stabbing attack in France.
The emergence of Europe’s ‘big four’
BrusselsIt's Europe's "big four" - new axis between four major countries of the European Union, trying to take the place of the Franco-German axis, which has been in crisis due to the continuous divergences between Paris and Berlin.
Salvini faces up to 15 years in prison for stopping illegal immigration
RomeDuring his year at the head of the Italian Ministry of the Interior, Matteo Salvini never stopped fighting illegal immigration. The boss of the League in Italy is accused of kidnapping because he blocked a boat of illegal migrants off the coast of Sicily when he was Minister of the Interior.
AfD files criminal charges against Merkel for coercion
BerlinIn the case of the Thuringian Prime Minister Thomas Kemmerich (FDP), who was forced to resign, the AfD has announced that it will report Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) for coercion.
Dutch parties demand that FvD be excluded from coalition
The HagueDutch party leaders have urged the VVD in the province of Brabant to rule out a coalition with the Forum voor Democratie after the province’s government collapsed. The VVD, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, is a liberal political party in the Netherlands.
