Turkey Combat Troops Aren’t About to Enter Libya War, Envoy Says

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey doesn’t foresee deploying combat troops to Libya under its military pact to support the country’s internationally recognized government, but could send personnel to help with training and guidance if requested by Tripoli, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s envoy to the fractured nation.

Turkish lawmakers will vote on the bilateral agreement on Saturday, Emrullah Isler told a conference in Ankara. The government of United Nations-backed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj approved the pact with Turkey around the same time the ambassador spoke.

Erdogan has previously expressed Turkey’s readiness to deploy soldiers in OPEC-member Libya if asked for by Sarraj. His forces have for months been fending off an offensive on the capital by commander Khalifa Haftar, who’s supported by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The Turkish president’s position fueled concerns that the Libyan conflict is tipping deeper into a grinding proxy war.

“If the legitimate government of Libya asks for help for military training and or the formation of military institutions following the approval of the memorandum of understanding on Saturday, then they would be deployed like in Somalia or Qatar,” Isler said. “The waving of a Turkish flag there would give the necessary message to the other side.”

Haftar already controls most of Libya’s oil facilities, as well as swaths of territory in the country’s east and south, and he’s seeking to seize the biggest prize -- Tripoli -- ahead of any peace settlement. The LNA accuses Sarraj’s government of being beholden to militias and extremists, something it denies.

No Plans

To be able to deploy troops in Libya, Erdogan’s administration would need to send a separate motion for a vote in parliament, Isler said, adding that such a move could follow if Libya asks for it.

Turkey’s move is aimed at countering Haftar, whose forces are backed by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group that’s headed by a confidant of President Vladimir Putin. The expanding conflict has alarmed the U.S., which is now pressing harder for a peace deal, after mostly watching from the sidelines of Libya’s war.

Erdogan has argued that sending troops at the request of Sarraj’s government wouldn’t contravene a UN arms embargo on Libya in place since 2011. A report by UN experts has recently cited Jordan, Turkey and the U.A.E. as violators of the embargo, according to media reports. Isler denied that Turkey was responsible for a violation.

Backed by Russia, Haftar Starts Offensive to Take Libyan Capital

Libya has been wracked by violence ever since the NATO-backed ouster of Moammar Qaddafi in 2011, with the instability allowing Libya to become a bastion for Islamist radicals and a magnet for migrants hoping to reach Europe.

Haftar launched his campaign on Tripoli just as the UN was laying the groundwork for a conference meant to reunite the divided country, which has Sarraj’s Government of National Accord, or GNA, in Tripoli and a dueling one in the eastern city of Tobruk allied with Haftar.

The deployment of Russian mercenaries since September has further complicated international efforts to end the fighting in the North African oil producer. Erdogan, who is keen to avoid a face-off with Russia in Libya, discussed the war there and the conflict in Syria with Putin earlier this week.

“On the Haftar issue, I don’t want it to give birth to a new Syria in relations with Russia, I believe Russia will also review its existing stance over Haftar,” Erdogan told state-run TRT television on Dec. 9. “He is an outlaw, and by that same token, any support he’s given is rendered illegally.”

Turkey and Libya this month also approved a contentious maritime demarcation deal as Ankara attempts to assert its power over areas of the eastern Mediterranean where major gas finds have been made in recent years.

--With assistance from Samer Khalil Al-Atrush.

To contact the reporter on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Michael Gunn

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