Turkey's muggers in Libya impoverishing their country
The Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, al-Siddiq al-Kabir, is coming to the surface as far as developments in Libya are concerned.
However, this is complicating
matters. Al-Kabir raised question marks on his role in making the Libyan
economy succumb to the Turkish agenda when he made a visit to Turkey on June
29. This is particularly true in the light of accusations to Ankara that it is
working to steal the wealth of the Libyan people by its interference in Libya.
Erdoğan's
muggers
Turkey depends on
some people in implementing its own agenda in Libya. Al-Kabir is just one of
these men. His official mandate gives him the chance to be of great help to
Turkey.
He is known to be
behind the decision to withdraw Libyan funds from European banks and channel
them to the Central Bank of Turkey to prop up the Turkish economy and the
Turkish lira which is in a free fall.
Libya, which suffers
its own budget deficit, has so far deposited $8 billion in the Central Bank of
Turkey, according to news reports.
On June 30, the
Libyan newspaper, al-Marsad, revealed that the Central Bank of Turkey had
revoked all credit letters issued for Libyan banks. This means that Libya's banks
will have to compensate Turkish companies for the losses they sustained in
Libya since the 2011 uprising against longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
Economic
catastrophe
Libyan banks will not
be able to pay this compensation. If they do, they will go bankrupt and even
need additional funds.
However, al-Kabir has
not commented on this. Instead, he discussed common interests during his
meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Black
record
Al-Kabir is a Libyan
economist who studied in the U.S. He had a political career during Gaddafi's
rule. Nevertheless, al-Kabir changed his political skin after the anti-Gaddafi
uprising.
This encouraged the
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya to advocate his appointment as the
governor of the Central Bank of Libya.
Al-Kabir has been
serving in this capacity since 2011. However, most specialists have a poor
assessment of his performance.
