The maritime agreement signed between Turkey and Libya redefined the balances in the Mediterranean. While the previous agreements reached with regional countries, chiefly Greece and Israel, had completely isolated Turkey from the East Mediterranean, this deal led to a contrasting outcome, and cornered Greece, Israel, Egypt and Southern Cyprus. Despite all the previous agreements, they can no longer carry out any peaceful operation in the sea without taking Turkey and Libya into account.
Of course, this will not be an easy process. This deal by Turkey and Libya, which have been passive actors in the region until now, will be considered as a challenge to the world. The topic remains fresh and tops the agenda among international lobbies, including the UN.
As I said in a previous article on this subject, this deal leads to new liabilities for Turkey in Libya, where a civil war rages. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a statement about the subject and clarified, “If called upon, Turkey can send troops to Libya.” Surely, this new development is not a situation that those plotting in the region will easily accept. In the case that it does happen, anti-Turkey lobbies that think balances in the Mediterranean and even in North Africa will develop in favor of Turkey once more, will take action. As a matter of fact, they already have taken action.
In a joint report we published in 2015 as the Association of Researchers on the Middle East and Africa (ORDAF), I had said:
“As much as the dispersed local groups, there are also foreign powers that support these on the Libyan political stage right now. The historical ties with Libya and the presence of Anatolia- and Crete-origin Turks within the country’s demographics, places Libya in a critical position in Turkey’s historical background. Furthermore, investment and trade relations have been strengthened between Turkey and Libya ever since the 1970s. Hence, Turkey being nonchalant regarding the developments here is out of the question. Turkey, which has primarily carried out humanitarian aid as soon as the Libya revolution started, is presently playing host to many Libyans.”
Five years on, the situation remains unchanged; on the contrary, the need for cooperation and for Turkey to undertake a greater role in Libya has increased. Surely, a sovereign state’s presence is essential in all of Libya. However, if the games that have been played in Libya since the start of the 20th century, if European and regional policies will not allow this to form, there is nothing more natural than it requesting military support from Turkey, and Turkey’s responding to this request.
Libya, which has been impacted by the international conflicts in the Mediterranean all through history, experienced its most stable era during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. However, with the Italian invasion that started in 1911, it became part of the international conflicts. Exactly a century after this, the winds of the Arab Spring started blowing in Libya, which brought the country face-to-face with national/international conflicts. It is impossible to explain the period that started in 2011 and resulted in the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi, who had been ruling the country for almost half a century, with the awakening of internal dynamics alone.
The century-long contradiction between development and inability to develop between 1911 and 2011, and the role given to Libya by international actors, has paved the way for this new circumstance. Hence, while the foreign intervention that started illegally by France in 2012 and joined by NATO violently wiped off Gaddafi, who was anti-West, from the political scene, it dragged Libya into a civil war. The interventionists who hid behind claims of the Arab Spring are continuing to implement the same brazen policies on Libya and the Mediterranean without any attention to what the society has undergone, the bloodshed and the country’s future.
It has not been easy for the Libyan government to accept the agreement with Turkey limiting its maritime borders in the East Mediterranean. Libya, which waited long and relied on the mediation of countries that set their sights on its resources, eventually realized the conspiracy against it and sat at the diplomacy table with Turkey. In this sense, this agreement was struck upon a legitimate request, such as the Libyan people’s request for help in the 1510s from Ottoman Sultan Suleyman after being exposed to the invasion of the Spaniards. Libyans who were cornered in Tajoura, near Tripoli, sent a delegation in 1915 to Istanbul and officially requested help from the Ottoman State. Sultan Suleyman, who responded to this request, sent a fleet under the order of Murad Agha to Tajoura and had the people of the region taken under control. Turgut Reis saving Tripoli from the Spaniards in 1551 onset a centuries-long period of stability in Libya.
Our hope is that the deal struck between Turkey and Libya will lead to a new period of stability.
