France-Turkey dispute escalates over Libya and Mediterranean

Libyan National Army forces patrol through the streets of Libya, as Turkey is accused of sending mercenaries to help the Tripoli government. (Photo/Twitter)
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  • French President Emmanuel Macron accused Turkey of sending ships with Syrian mercenaries to Libya in a breach of the Berlin peace conference

JEDDAH: French President Emmanuel Macron stepped up his war of words with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, accusing Turkey of meddling in Libya and announcing France will send warships to support Greece in its standoff with Ankara over energy reserves in the eastern Mediterranean.

Earlier, Macron accused Turkey of sending ships with Syrian mercenaries to Libya in a breach of the Berlin peace conference where world leaders agreed to stay out of the conflict.

鈥淭his is an explicit and serious infringement of what was agreed in Berlin. It鈥檚 a broken promise,鈥� said Macron.

French paper Le Monde also quoted French intelligence claims that several Syrian mercenaries brought to Libya by Turkey have deserted and fled to Italy.

However, Turkey鈥檚 Foreign Ministry rejected Macron鈥檚 allegations as 鈥渇anciful鈥� and blamed France for Libya鈥檚 instability.

It is not the first time ties between Elysee and Ankara have frayed. Issues including Syrian Kurdish officials meeting Macron last year, NATO, and Turkey鈥檚 oil and gas drilling activities in the eastern Mediterranean have created deep fault lines between the two countries.

Oded Berkowitz, a security analyst, said the involvement of several countries in the Libyan issue complicated any potential political resolution.

鈥淭he more these countries become involved for their own interests, as for example is the case with Turkey鈥檚 official intervention in support of the GNA, the situation will further complicate,鈥� he told Arab News.

Although the Berlin conference was 鈥渨ell intentioned,鈥� its conclusions were violated almost immediately, he added.

Galip Dalay, a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford, said that 鈥渢he center of crisis between Turkey and Europe is moving from Berlin to Paris.鈥�

Amid a simmering dispute over Turkey鈥檚 energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, Greece鈥檚 Defense Minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, recently accused Turkey of provocative behavior and rejected any demands to delimitarize 16 Aegean islands belonging to Greece.

Nathan Vest, a research assistant and Middle East specialist at the RAND Corporation, said Turkey and France鈥檚 heated exchange highlights the disjointed international approach to the Libyan crisis.

鈥淲hile some countries, such as Germany, seek to resolve the conflict diplomatically and are working to do so in good faith, neither Turkey nor France fall into this category. Both ardently back different sides in the conflict, and both still see a military solution as viable, or at least as a means of achieving a more favorable settled resolution,鈥� he told Arab News.

鈥淎s long as international backers of the major belligerents feel that way, the conflict will be sustained and the peace process undermined.鈥�