For enthusiasts of adventures in former Ottoman lands, Turkish connections are easy to find across the region. In Iraq and Syria, for instance, the Turkmen minorities have long been seen as handy mediums of Turkish influence, though the realities on the ground have sometimes defied the expectations — like the affinity some Iraqi Shiite Turkmens feel toward Iran and the collaboration of some Syrian Turkmens with Damascus or the Kurds.

Recently, the role of the offspring of Ottoman Turks in Libya has become the subject of increased interest as the war in the country rages on, apparently with growing Turkish involvement. Ankara has thrown its weight behind the Tripoli and Misrata forces fighting the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Hifter, backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Those taking comfort in nostalgia would muse how much Misrata’s rebellion against former dictator Moammar Gadhafi and its current resistance against Hifter owe to the descendants of Ottoman Turks or how “the grandsons of Mustafa Kemal’s comrades-in-arms keep the 1911 spirit alive” — a reference to battles against the Italian invasion of Libya, led by the would-be founder of modern Turkey.

But what role do Turco-Libyans actually play in Libyan politics? Does their presence justify Turkey’s intervention?