Turkey enjoys complete immunity with regard to the
Libyan scene, despite the two-year arms embargo; Turkey has sent weapons to the
Islamic brigades supports Fayez al-Sarraj.
In December 2018, 3,000 Turkish-made machine guns
with four million bullets were founded in a container at the commercial port of
Al-Khums.
In January 2019, a shipment of 556 boxes, each
containing 36 Turkish rifles, was founded in a ship believed to contain toys in
the port of Misurata.
At the end of December, unknown sources at Tripoli's
Airport witnessed movements of fighters from Turkey on unregistered flights.
According to various sources contacted by Radio
France International (RFI), the Libyan Airlines (Afriqiyah Airways) and Libyan
Wings Airlines, owned by Abdel Hakim Belhadj, a jihadist residing in Turkey,
have transported these fighters from Turkey to Tripoli. Their goal: to lend a
hand to Islamic militias loyal to the National Accord government.
Between 27 and 29 December 2019, four planes landed
at the "Meteja" airport, where they sent Syrian fighters from the
pro-Ankara brigades.
"We, the Free Army, have come to defend Islam
in Libya," said a Syrian accent fighter in one of the videos demonstrating
the presence of mercenaries in Libya.
These mercenaries belong to the brigades operating
in Syria, called Sultan Murad and al-Hazm or al-Mu'tasim Division, which pays
seductive wages ($ 2,000 per month) and have been unemployed since the fighting
in the pro-Turkish division around Afrin was frozen.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the National Accord
government, in an embarrassing manner, denied the presence of these Syrian
fighters in Libya, saying that the video was filmed in the Syrian city of
Raqqa.
However, some Libyan civil society activists note
elements in the video indicating that it was filmed in Libya near the
"Tikbali" military camp recently seized by opponents of Khalifa
Haftar's forces.
Moreover, Turkey itself has confirmed its dispatch
of these forces. A counselor to the President of Turkey notes that the shipment
"has been planned". The same tone came from many high-ranking Turkish
sources interviewed by Reuters news agency.
According to these sources, Ankara is
"considering sending Syrian militias to Libya, and the matter is under
discussion." he emphasized that "the matter is under consideration
and meetings are organized around it," and these sources add the
following: "This is the current trend."
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, told Radio France International that at least 500
Syrian fighters are already in Libya. A thousand others were transferred to
Turkey, and thus they will be sent to "Tripoli".
He explained that "registration offices are
open to fighters who wish to go and fight in Libya, in the areas under Turkish
occupation in northern Syria, and specifically in the Afrin region.
Now, we are sure that the fighters belonging to the
so-called" national army "loyal to Turkey They have been moved to
Libya. There are at least 500 fighters who are already in Libya. Hundreds of
others are preparing to go there. Indeed, they are mercenaries only because
they are fighting outside Syria, in the service of Turkey, not for a cause but
just for the money ".
What about Turkish soldiers?
Consequently, the deployment of the Turkish army,
approved by its parliament on January 2, will largely depend on these
mercenaries who were imported from the Syrian theater as was the case in
northern Syria.
The Turkish army will limit itself to playing an
advisory role only, especially since Russia and the United States will have a
very negative impact on the direct presence of Turkish soldiers, who risk
suffering great losses in light of the quality of the forces, Major General
Haftar and the dependence on about 800 elite mercenaries from Wagner. And the
financial cost of mercenaries is really heavy for Turkey, which has fragile financial
resources.
The tacit agreement, again, will be Erdogan's goal:
to use this pressure in Libya to gain more territory in Syria, or, more
ambitiously, to freeze the attack on the city of Idlib. It can be imagined that
Ankara would benefit from its indirect intervention by obtaining increased
freedom of drilling in the White Sea between Cyprus and Libya.
Europe continue to monitor and comment on it only
without any decisive role in this file, despite the presence of some French
special forces responsible for gathering intelligence information, whose
presence was accepted last summer by "Paris" after the death of three
agents of the General Directorate of Security Foreign office in Libya.
