Greece intercepts Turkish ship loaded with weapons on Libyan coast

Nahla Abdel Moneim

As Turkey continues its devious activities to achieve its colonial ambitions in Libya by supporting militias, the Greek navy on June 10 intercepted a Turkish cargo ship near the Libyan coast loaded with weapons and ammunition.

Turkish penetration

Italian media reported that the Greek ship was participating in the Ireni maritime operation to monitor the region’s coasts and observed a Turkish cargo ship near the coast of Libya. This occurred a day after Greece and Italy signed an agreement to demarcate the borders of the maritime economic zone between them.

Turkey’s breach of the arms embargo to Libya comes only a month after the start of the Ireni naval mission, which the European Union began in early May 2020 to monitor the implementation of the arms embargo, using a French warship, aircraft from Luxembourg, the German military forces, and military equipment from other countries, in order to prevent weapons from entering the Libyan conflict via the Mediterranean. However, the Turkish government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been unable to hide its regional ambitions, and it thus remains important for the international community to act in order to stop the Turkish interference.

History of naval support

This was not the first incident of this kind, as it has been a frequent occurrence. In December 2019, Russia Today reported that the Greek Coast Guard intercepted a Turkish cargo ship in Souda Bay off the island of Crete that was heading to Libya on suspicion of being loaded with weapons. According to the report, the Greek authorities have enough evidence to prove Erdogan’s involvement in supporting Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) with weapons, as well as being aware of the timing of the shipment and the sophisticated weapons it was carrying.

In September 2015, the Greek authorities confirmed the seizure of a Turkish ship heading to Libya carrying large quantities of weapons, and its crew did not have legal papers for the cargo, which included sophisticated rifles.

Ottoman wealth

Erdogan aspires to divide Libya so as to be able to control the country’s oil wealth by supporting his affiliated Islamist government led by Sarraj. Sky News reported on June 5 that Erdogan pledged to help Sarraj in exchange for benefiting from gas and oil exploration in the region.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also published a map showing areas of gas exploration in the Mediterranean, as well as oil sites in Libya. In this regard, Ramzi al-Rumaih, adviser at the Libyan Organization for Studies and National Security, said in televised remarks to Al-Arabiya TV that Erdogan deals with Libya as if it is an Ottoman province, stressing that Erdogan’s activities in the region must be with a green light from one of the major world powers. He emphasized that the calmer conditions in Libya is linked to the dismantling of the armed militias supported by Erdogan.

Turkey’s ambitions vs. Cairo Declaration

The dismantling of the militias and the handing over of their weapons is a fundamental requirement of the Cairo Declaration, which was launched by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on June 6 in the presence of Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar and Libyan House Speaker Aguila Saleh, constituting a consensus between Libya’s military and political wings.

The world’s major powers have supported the Cairo Declaration, as it expresses international desires regarding the Libyan crisis. The United States expressed support for the proposals during a phone call between Sisi and President Donald Trump. At the same time, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and European countries have also praised it, while the Turkish-backed GNA has been the only one to object.

Accordingly, the Cairo Declaration clearly reveals the intentions of the parties who do not want to alleviate the Libyan conflict, which parallels the EU’s recent discovery of a Turkish weapons-laden ship heading to Libya. This exacerbates Erdogan’s crisis in Libya and alerts the international community of its responsibility to protect people from such villainy.