Turkey uses TiKA to promote its Ottoman project in Libya

Shaimaa Yehia

Turkey has been keen on boosting its soft power influence in Libya via its economic and humanitarian assistance agencies. To this end, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TiKA) has been active in Libya to promote the Turkish Ottoman project.

TiKA and Libya’s Government of National Accord launched a vocational training program for the training of 100 Libyans from a number of cities.

TiKA opened branches in Libya, Somalia, Kenya, Egypt and Tunisia in 2011. TiKA has projects in 37 African countries in education, health and agriculture.

Libyan professor of international law, Mohamed al-Zubaidy, said that Turkey had destroyed the Libyan state by TiKA, which supports the militias.

“The militias and TiKA have looted the Libyan wealth to help the Turkish economy,” al-Zubaidy told THE REFERENCE.

“Turkey uses charity and humanitarian organizations to promote the Turkish expansionary project in the region,” he said.

The law professor has stressed that TiKA and other agencies support terrorism and militias in Libya to serve Erdogan’s project at the expense of the Libyan interests.

For his part, researcher Abdel Sattar Heteita, an expert on Libyan affairs, told THE REFERENCE that TiKA is an arm of the Turkish intelligence service. “It is active in many countries under the name of providing assistance, training and development projects, but it is basically for collecting information,” Heteita said.

The researcher noted TiKA has been active in Libya, especially in education and the media in western cities. “TiKA had been also active in southern cities before the Libyan army controlled the south earlier this year,” he added.