Turkey’s war in Libya

Turkey had initially opposed NATO's intervention in the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya to prevent France from playing a prominent role. But within a month, Turkey gave NATO the green light and allowed Izmir to become the command center of the NATO operation. Now, Ankara is griping about foreign intervention in Libya. Of course, this attitude is not prompted by the foreign policy principle of maintaining neutrality. On the contrary, Turkey has not abandoned its policies that are dragging it into a war of proxies because of its backing of the Muslim Brotherhood. On one side Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have joined forces to squash the Muslim Brotherhood and on the other side are Turkey and Qatar. Sudan has joined the Qatar-Turkey bloc by playing a role in Qatari weapons shipments to Libyan Dawn, a superstructure of militia forces dominating Tripoli.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in Ankara categorically rejects accusations that it is taking sides in Libya and working only with the Muslim Brotherhood. But Ankara’s reading of the political developments in Libya and its views about the parties there immediately brings Ankara to one side. For one thing, the AKP government is not hiding its support for the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC) and the Omar al-Hassi government — which is not recognized by the international community — against the House of Representatives and the government of Abdullah al-Thinni.