Turkey’s muggers in Libya impoverishing their country

Sara Rashad

The Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, al-Siddiq al-Kabir, is coming to the surface as far as developments in Libya are concerned.

However, this is complicating matters. Al-Kabir raised question marks on his role in making the Libyan economy succumb to the Turkish agenda when he made a visit to Turkey on June 29. This is particularly true in the light of accusations to Ankara that it is working to steal the wealth of the Libyan people by its interference in Libya.

Erdoğan’s muggers

Turkey depends on some people in implementing its own agenda in Libya. Al-Kabir is just one of these men. His official mandate gives him the chance to be of great help to Turkey.

He is known to be behind the decision to withdraw Libyan funds from European banks and channel them to the Central Bank of Turkey to prop up the Turkish economy and the Turkish lira which is in a free fall.

Libya, which suffers its own budget deficit, has so far deposited $8 billion in the Central Bank of Turkey, according to news reports.

On June 30, the Libyan newspaper, al-Marsad, revealed that the Central Bank of Turkey had revoked all credit letters issued for Libyan banks. This means that Libya’s banks will have to compensate Turkish companies for the losses they sustained in Libya since the 2011 uprising against longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Economic catastrophe

Libyan banks will not be able to pay this compensation. If they do, they will go bankrupt and even need additional funds.

However, al-Kabir has not commented on this. Instead, he discussed common interests during his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Black record

Al-Kabir is a Libyan economist who studied in the U.S. He had a political career during Gaddafi’s rule. Nevertheless, al-Kabir changed his political skin after the anti-Gaddafi uprising.

This encouraged the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya to advocate his appointment as the governor of the Central Bank of Libya.

Al-Kabir has been serving in this capacity since 2011. However, most specialists have a poor assessment of his performance.