On November 5, local time, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense announced on its social account that the Turkish Armed Forces continued to provide military training to the Libyan National Unity Government Armed Forces under the framework of the “Military Training, Cooperation and Consulting Agreement.”
On the 12th of last month, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense announced that it had begun providing military training to 120 soldiers of the Libyan National Unity Government. The training activities were held at the Tajoura Joint Ground Training and Exercise Center in Libya. The purpose of the training was to bring the Libyan National Unity Government armed forces to international standards.
At the end of November 2019, the Turkish government and the Libyan Government of National Unity signed two memorandums. One is the “Maritime Jurisdiction” Memorandum of Understanding, which allows Turkey to have a larger exclusive economic zone in the Eastern Mediterranean. The other is a memorandum of understanding on security and military cooperation. According to this memorandum, if the Libyan government requests it, Turkey will consider sending armed forces to Libya. Subsequently, Turkey actively intervened in Libyan affairs and helped the Libyan National Unity Government to reverse the situation in the military conflict with the eastern armed “National Army”.
Since the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, the situation in Libya has fallen into turmoil. The involvement of multinational forces has made the situation more complicated. At present, the two major forces are facing each other separately, and the national unity government recognized by the United Nations is supported by Turkey, Qatar and other countries. The Eastern “National Army” led by the military strongman Haftar is supported by Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
