Schools and universities: Turkey penetrating in Libya to spread terrorism and child recruitment

Sherif Abdel Zaher

Terrorist groups and militias backed by Turkey are trying to control educational institutions in Libya with a view to disseminating poisonous ideas in the minds of young people and recruiting them to carry out terrorist operations in the country.

The Wefaq government militias have begun opening a number of schools in coordination with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, seeking financial support through what they have called in their media to mobilize official and popular efforts and international education partners to support students’ return to school.

The armed groups supported by Turkey used the deteriorating educational landscape in Libya to serve as a gateway to the incursion into the country and control of educational schools to spread extremist ideas.

In 2016, Al-Wefaq militias led by Faiz Al-Sarraj paved the way for Turkey to break into the educational field and acquire it after several meetings and meetings with Turkish leaders, according to a statement of the Ministry of Education, through its social networking site Facebook.

In 2017, Turkey began establishing the first school called Waqf in Libya to recruit children and youth for armed groups and carry out terrorist operations against the Libyan National Army and state institutions.

Libyan writer and researcher Mohamed al-Zaidi said that Muslim Brotherhood terrorist groups want to tamper with and control young people by setting up schools in Libya.

Zaidi said in a statement to the Reference that the Turks for years began in the process of turning Libya into an Ottoman state through charities, schools and universities in order to control and spread extremist ideas of terrorism.