The Turkish Parliament has approved on Thursday a law that allows for the deployment of troops in Libya, according to has informed the speaker of the House, Mustafa Sentop, although the initiative is expected to result in an increase of the military support, training of troops and the deployment of drones in the libyan air space more than in the sending of soldiers to the ground. The Chamber has supported the measure by 325 votes in favour of AKP’s chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies nationalist versus 184 votes against the majority of the opposition parties.
last week Erdogan announced that he would seek the backing of Parliament to send troops to Libya in support of the Government of National Unity (GNA for its acronym in English) with Fayez al Serraj the front, recognised by the international community, and who has been besieged by the troops of the rebel general Khalifa Hafter, who have the support of Russia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
“The deployment will most probably start with military advisors, the greater number of drones and special operations carried out jointly with libyan forces”, says Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the think tank Centre of Policy Studies Economic and Foreign. “We are confident that the Turkish Armed Forces not to get involved in a military action”, underlines Ulgen.
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In this line, the vice-president Turkish Fuat Oktay was confident Wednesday that the law has a symbolic role as a brake of the hostilities, and that Turkey would not send troops if the forces of Hafter halt their offensive and retreat. The GNA, who has called for explicit support to Ankara, also has the backing of Qatar and Italy.
In November last year, Ankara signed a cooperation agreement with Tripoli, with the confidence that would serve to prevent Libya to enter into “chaos”. The measure sought to protect the private investment Turkish in Libya and to strengthen the claims energy turks in the Mediterranean. But experts fear that the decision in front of Turkey with other international players in the libyan war, and in the region. The Arab League, for example, has warned against the deployment of foreign soldiers in the north african country. Egypt, for its part, has condemned the decision right away and Turkish, through its Foreign Ministry, has warned that “it could negatively affect the stability of the Mediterranean” and called on the international community to react to the measure.
