Deranged traitors: Ghariani and Brotherhood implore Erdogan to occupy Libya

Sarah Rashad

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is betting on his supporters from radical Islamist groups in the Arab region to defend Ankara’s interests within their countries.

This was confirmed by the behavior of former Libyan Brotherhood Mufti Sadiq al-Ghariani, who asked Libyans to rush to Turkey by limiting importation only to Ankara as a kind of thanks to it for its support of the Islamist groups in Libya.

Ghariani’s allegations

Ghariani claimed in a video that Turkey sacrifices its security and interests and puts itself in confrontation with everyone else in order to defend the Libyan people.

The Brotherhood mufti praised Erdogan and deliberately ignored Turkey’s continued interference in Libya for its own interests, instead presenting it as the victim, adding that “Turkey should be given priority in our economic relations, security cooperation, and oil and gas exploration over any other country.”

This is not the first time that Ghariani has called for supporting the Turkish economy, nor is he the only one to do so, as the Egyptian Brotherhood has repeated calls to support the Turkish economy following the decline of the Turkish lira.

Libyan politicians have condemned the Brotherhood mufti for inciting the waste of Libya’s oil resources and a complete occupation of the country by Turkey. Abdel-Moneim al-Yassir told the Reference that Ghariani does not hesitate to defend Turkish interests at the expense of his own country’s independence.

Yassir questioned the significance of Ghariani’s demand to allow Ankara to explore Libyan territorial waters and for Libya to only import to Turkey, noting that this would pave the way for a Turkish occupation of Libya.

Deranged mufti

Yassir described Ghariani as a deranged person who issues ludicrous fatwas and demands, stressing that he lost a large portion of his influence once he left Libya and stayed in Turkey. He added that the Brotherhood mufti is now alienated by the Libyan people, who reject the exploitative Turkish intervention in their country.

Ghariani had previously issued the same call last October, saying at the time when the Turkish lira declined, “All Libyan and non-Libyan merchants are responsible for paying these funds and investing in Turkey.”

The alienated Mufti claimed that there are regional countries seeking to strike at the Turkish economy, demanding that products be dispensed in favor of Turkish products.