Libya–Turkey relations

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler has reiterated Turkey's resolve to protect its rights within the so-called Blue Homeland region. 

"As we persist in combating terrorism, we safeguard our borders. And without any compromise, we defend our rights and interests in the Blue Homeland," he said.

Turkey will not neglect its energy interests in the eastern Mediterranean and Libya, despite prioritizing the natural gas Sakarya field in the Black Sea, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday.

Turkey's Ministry of Education is also including the Turkey-Libyan maritime memorandum in the new educational program for school students, along with the "Blue Homeland" dogma that expresses Ankara's claims in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Libya's chief prosecutor said Saturday he would establish a fact-finding mission to investigate a meeting last month between the foreign minister of one of the country's rival governments and Israel's chief diplomat.

Libya's prime minister suspended Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush on Sunday and referred her for investigation after Israel said its Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had met her last week despite the countries not having formal relations.

After several years of virtually nonexistent relations, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis spoke on the telephone Wednesday with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush, signaling that contacts between Athens and Tripoli are at a turning point in the effort to build functional channels of communication.

The upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 is a first opportunity for Greece and Turkey to pick up the thread of bilateral relations again. The preceding four years started badly, with the sharp increase in refugee and migrant flows in the summer of 2019, and got even worse with the signing of the Turkey-Libya (GNA) maritime deal in November of the same year.

Türkiye's parliament on June 21 extended for another 18 months a mandate that allows the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya.

The mandate was renewed with the votes of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party and its nationalist allies which hold a majority in parliament. An opposition party also voted in favor of the extension.

A presidential motion demanding the extension of the duration of the Turkish troops in Libya for another 18 months was submitted to the Parliament late on June 13.

Turkey's deputy foreign minister reiterated Ankara's continued support on Nov. 12 for the Libyan Government National Unity and the political process.

Sedat Önal spoke at an International Conference on Libya in Paris that was co-chaired by France, Germany and Italy. He said it was very important that Libyans joined the group.