World rising up against Erdogan

Mustafa Salah, Reem Abdel Meguid and Mevat Zakaria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will send troops and battle-hardened jihadists to Libya with the aim of sabotaging attempts to stabilize the country and end the control of terrorist militias on it.

Nonetheless, his plan faces internal opposition. Erdogan’s plan, the Turkish opposition says, will cause the shedding of Muslims’ blood. It rejects a repetition of the Syrian scenario in another country.

The same plan faces international opposition. The European Union will likely impose sanctions on Turkey as a growing number of countries call for settling the Libyan crisis in a negotiated manner, away from Turkish interference.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed that Turkey had already sent 300 militants to Libya. Some of these militants, the observatory said, received training at Turkish military camps in Syria before travelling to Libya.

The Turkish parliament convened on January 2, instead of January 8, to approve a request by the Turkish president to send troops to Libya.

All-out resistance

Several countries declared their opposition to the Turkish plan. The same countries are harrowing to prevent Erdogan from carrying out this plan.

Political action

France, Germany, the UK and Italy will hold a conference on Libya in Berlin, Germany, to find political solutions to the Libyan crisis.

On December 5, Greece declared the Libyan ambassador in Athens a “persona non grata”. The foreign ministers of the European Union held consultations on means of curbing the negative effects of the deals Turkey signed with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

On October 8, an Egyptian-Greek, Cypriot summit was held in Cairo to discuss the protection of the rights of the three states in the Eastern Mediterranean region. They also discussed support to effort made by Cyprus to reach a settlement to the Cypriot crisis in the light of the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. The three states also declared their opposition to Turkish moves in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in the Cypriot economic zone.

Military action

The Eastern Mediterranean region has been the scene of a series of naval drills aiming at countering growing threats in it.

Egypt held joint military drills with Greece. Greece also participated in military drills in Egypt in 2017 and 2018 at the Mohamed Naguib Military Base in the Egyptian Western Desert.

On November 2019, Egypt declared the launch of joint air and naval drills with Greece and Cyprus. The drills aim at countering potential threats. The drills came at a time of high tension between Greece and Cyprus, on one hand, and Turkey, on the other, over natural gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Economic action

There appeared a series of economic measures to penalize Turkey for its negative policies in the region. US sanctions were some of the most outstanding measures in this regard. The US imposed sanctions on Turkey for allowing the Nord Stream pipeline to pass through its territories on the road from Russia to Germany.

Turkey is in a real crisis. It will anger the US if it does not succumb to American demands as far as the pipeline is concerned. It will anger Russia if it succumbs to the American demands. Russia can also impose economic sanctions on Turkey.

On November 11, 2019, European foreign ministers signed a legal framework that will open the door for imposing European sanctions on Turkey against the background of its exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean region.