By RFIPosted on 12-27-2019Changed on 12-27-2019 at 12:11 AM

Turkey will send troops to Libya at the request of Tripoli, Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Thursday December 26. If Turkey is ready to get involved in the conflict, it is because the country has an interest in this government of national unity being maintained and imposed.

The bill to send troops to Libya is expected to be passed by parliament on January 8 or 9. Ankara is already providing military support to the government of national unity (GNA) of Fayez el-Sarraj, recognized by the UN, but contested by the coalition. But if she wants to engage more intensely it is because she has commercial interests.

$ 25 billion in potential contracts

There is an international embargo, but arms have never stopped being delivered to Libya. The government of Fayez el-Sarraj notably received Turkish drones at 2.5 million euros each. Turkey in economic difficulty is keen to get paid. The country is also thinking of the $ 25 billion in contracts signed, but not yet executed.

►Read also: In Libya, faced with the progression of Haftar's forces, Sarraj asks for help

The survival of the Sarraj government is also for Turkey, the guarantee of a crucial maritime issue. With Tripoli, Ankara has signed an agreement which allows it to assert rights over large areas in the eastern Mediterranean rich in hydrocarbons.

The agreement worries Greece, Egypt , Cyprus and Israel. Keeping his only ally in the Mediterranean is also for Erdogan to stand up to his regional rivals: Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates who are on the side of Marshal Haftar, the opponent of the government of national unity.

Turkey can also show that it can send soldiers to Syria as well as to Libya. For Erdogan, it is a demonstration outside, as on the interior scene, that he remains a strong man. Recep Tayyip Erdogan who currently contested in his own camp and who lost the municipal elections in spring 2019.

The Libyan government is the only one that is pro-Turkey with the small state of northern Cyprus which is not internationally recognized. Turkey is very isolated on the Mediterranean and needs the survival of this government. And that represents a threat to the regimes in the Gulf and in Egypt.

Interview with Jalel Harchaoui, specialist in Libyan political and military questions on the Turkish intervention

26-12-2019

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