Libya

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a phone conversation on Jan. 18, according to Turkey's Communications Directorate.

The two leaders discussed Libya and other regional issues, said a directorate statement.

With its efforts in the field and diplomatic area, Turkey assumed the key role to bring peace to Libya, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 19.

In a culmination of the government's flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of Sunday's Berlin conference on Libya, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke on the phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, expressing his displeasure that Greece has not been invited.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on Europe to support its work in Libya, where it is providing military support to the internationally-recognized government, if it wants to end the conflict there.

Erdoğan made his remarks in a column published on the Politico website on Jan. 18, ahead of a summit in Berlin on Jan. 19 that will try to stabilize the country.

The Greek National Intelligence service was among several top Greek state and government websites that went down on 17 January due to a wholesale cyber attack for which an ultra-nationalist Turkish hackers group with apparently strong neo-Ottoman sympathies named Anka Neferler Tim  has claimed responsibility.

The agreement on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean signed between Turkey and the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) is in violation of international law and is therefore invalid, Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar said after a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Friday.

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader on Jan. 17 criticized the government's foreign policy, especially in the Middle East and said that Turkish foreign policy has become "individual-centric."

Germany and the United Nations will push rival Libyan camps and their foreign backers fighting over the capital to agree on Sunday to a truce and monitoring mechanism as first steps towards peace, diplomats and a draft communique said.

The Turkish president on Jan. 17 expressed concern on recent developments in the embattled Idlib province in northwestern Syria, saying they were an indication that the Syrian regime did not comply with cease-fire deals initiated by Turkey and Russia.

A meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar ended on Friday without any statements to the media. 

The meeting, which took place at Mitsotakis' office in Parliament, followed one between Haftar and Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias at the ministry.