Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, described last weekend as a "scandal" the violations of the embargo on the sale of weapons in Libya, imposed since the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. A UN report, released in late 2019, directly targeted the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Jordan. According to information from Europe 1, there is indeed much evidence of violations of the embargo on the part of Turkey.
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Ships deliver arms shipments to Libyan militias
Emmanuel Macron had directly targeted the Turkish regime on January 29, assuring that Turkish ships "accompanied" Syrian mercenaries arriving in Libya. This presidential warning is based on observations made by all the navies who have been patrolling the Mediterranean since the start of the year. Other evidence: the consultation of social networks, including those of the three main Syrian Islamist groups, which send jihadists to Libya without hiding in the least and without hiding their links with the Turkish army either.
Even recently, Turkish arms embargo violations have continued. On Wednesday, as the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a lasting "cease-fire" in Libya, a Turkish-chartered ship was unloading a shipment of weapons destined for Libyan militias in the port of Misrata. These militias have published short films on their Facebook account, which show the alignments of light armored vehicles, cannons and missiles.
This ship, the Medkon Sinop, had arrived in Libyan territorial waters escorted by two frigates of the Turkish navy, the Göksu, registered F497 and the Gökova, registered F496. Their role was to prohibit any control and seizure of this shipment, which violates all the United Nations resolutions on Libya. A well-established scenario, since it had already been used twice last month by the ships Miro and Bana.
Syrian jihadists sent to Libya by Turkey
These weapons are partly given to the Libyan militias, but also to the Syrian jihadists sent to Libya by Turkey. To date, 4,700 Syrian fighters have already arrived in Libya and 1,500 await their transfer from the north of Syria, where they take part in the Turkish offensive against the Kurds in the Islamist brigades like the Firqat Sultan Murad or the Faylaq al-Rahmane , the Legion of the Merciful.
On the Libyan front, they are engaged against the troops of Marshal Haftar and supervised by instructors of the Turkish special forces. These jihadists are also supervised by mercenaries from a private company called Sadat, which is led by a former general of the Turkish army posing as special adviser to President Recep Erdogan. On its website, Sadat's mission is to establish military cooperation between Islamic countries, to help the Islamic world take the place it deserves among the great powers.