Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) has not yet requested Turkey to sent its military to the North African country, but if such a request is made Ankara can fulfill it, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) has not yet requested Turkey to sent its military to the North African country, but if such a request is made Ankara can fulfill it, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday put forward the idea of a possible deployment of the country's forces per a request from the Tripoli-based GNA, following the inking of an agreement on military cooperation by two governments last week.
"With the [recently] signed agreement with Libya we have secured our [national] interests. Deployment of troops is a part of that agreement same as [military] training, technical support and so on. We already have similar agreements with other countries. Currently, we do not have any requests from Libya to deploy the troops, but if it arrives we will review it," Cavusoglu told reporters.
He added that Turkey had legal procedures for handling such requests in parliament, citing as an example its mandate on using its armed forces in Syria and Iraq.
After the ouster and assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the country was plunged into a brutal civil war. Today, Libya is divided between two centers of power an elected parliament in the country's east, supported by the Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Haftar, and the UN-back GNA in the west.
