Turkey’s involvement in Libya has come a long way — from commercial diplomacy to proxy war and now institution-building. The new promise to build the Libyan army from scratch is what might set the Turks apart from many of the other foreign powers involved in the North African nation’s civil war. Future success in Libya, however, depends on Turkey’s ability to find more powerful partners — especially Germany and the United States.

The state-owned Anadolu Agency reported on Aug. 17 that the defense ministers of Turkey and Qatar agreed to sign a deal with Libya’s UN-backed, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) “to establish facilities … for military training and consultancy” and “send consultants and military personnel to Libya.” Essentially, Turkey will build and run a military academy to train officers for the GNA, turning its militias into a standing army. Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has provided training to GNA forces in the Turkish town of Isparta.

The new agreement represents a new chapter for Ankara. After Gaddafi, Turkey’s involvement in the North African country focused on commercial diplomacy at first — securing lucrative contracts for Turkish firms and boosting bilateral trade. But when Libya’s civil war entered a new phase in 2014, the North African country turned into a battleground for local factions that sometimes acted as proxies for foreign actors — not unlike Syria. The GNA found itself on the defensive against the Tobruk-based House of Representatives, whose Libyan National Army (LNA) is led by the controversial strongman Khalifa Hifter. A host of regional and international powers — Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Greece and Russia — back the LNA, while Qatar and Turkey support the GNA.

Ankara’s big move in Libya came after it signed military cooperation and maritime boundary agreements with the GNA in December 2019. At the time, Hifter’s forces had reached the outskirts of Tripoli, but the TSK helped the GNA turn the tide. Now, GNA forces fight the LNA on a more equal footing — especially in the coastal town of Sirte — while Turkey’s clout in Libya and the eastern Mediterranean grows.