An increasing number of experts are speculating in the Arab media that Turkey may repeat the Syrian scenario in Libya, drawing parallels with the Libyan and Syrian conflicts.
Turkey continues to actively transfer Syrian mercenaries from the north of Syria to al-Wattiya Military Base, located in the west of Libya. This base, after its capture by the forces of the Faiz al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) in 2020, is fully under Turkish control, and there are cadre units of the Turkish Armed Forces stationed there.
According to some sources, before the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria, Egypt and Turkey adhered to an unspoken rule of non-harming each other in Libya; now, the situation has changed and Cairo has sensed fears of possible destabilisation in the east of the neighbouring country, suggesting that Turkey could use the Syrians as a battering ram against eastern Libya, posing a significant threat to Egyptian national security.
It is likely that the recent surprise meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Libyan National Army (LNA) chief Khalifa Haftar in Cairo touched on this very issue.
Syrian mercenaries have emerged in western Libya during the LNA’s campaign to capture Tripoli in 2019. Turkish intelligence services recruited fighters in northern Syria, in groups such as Sultan Murad and others, after which they were trained in southern Turkey and then transferred to Tripoli, where they took part in combat operations against terrorists.
THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.
Abd al-Latif Ghulam for Head-Post.com
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