Erdogan in desperate bid to hide Libya losses

Mustafa Kamel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan works hard to cover the losses he is sustaining in Libya after sending mercenaries from Syria to the North African state to prop up the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

Erdogan uses all state institutions in his country to cover up these losses. He also tries to use the presence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Libya in order to justify his military involvement in the country.

Concealing losses

Erdogan’s new move comes after the emergence of news about the death of a number of Turkish intelligence officers in the battlefield in Libya.

Some Turkish politicians and journalists are raising the issue. Erdogan countered this by putting six journalists in jail and lifting the parliamentary immunity of some lawmakers.

One of the lawmakers held a press conference at the parliament building, during which he said the Turkish intelligence officers killed in Libya did not receive military honors or funerals like the military does its other dead members.

Apart from lifting the immunity of the lawmakers and putting some journalists in jail, Erdogan’s government also suspended some news websites and closed down others.

ISIS card

Erdogan is using ISIS Libya to justify his presence in the country. He uses the same card in order to justify the dispatch of more Syrian hirelings to Libya.

In doing this, the Turkish president overlooks the Covid-19 virus outbreak in Turkey, even as tens of thousands of Turkish citizens have contracted the infection so far and hundreds are dying from it.

Erdogan is using the international preoccupation with fighting the disease in moving ahead with the implementation of his agenda in Libya. He keeps sending mercenaries from Syria, including ISIS terrorists, to Libya.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed recently that Erdogan had sent over 28 former ISIS terrorists to Libya to join GNA militias in the North African state.