The Turkish Minister of National Defence, Hulusi Akar, said that “although the region seems distant, Turkey has a 500-year history with Libya, a common history.”
He added that when Tripoli was about to fall towards the end of 2019, a letter was written to five countries and NATO by the Government of National Accord (GNA), stating that the “only positive response to the letter written by Fayez Al-Sarraj was President Erdoğan.”
Noting that the work on military training and cooperation in Libya continues, Akar said that even if there is no election, it is a great achievement to reach this point.
Akar underlined that this is with the support of Turkey and said, “From now on, our wish is to draw the framework and hold elections as soon as possible. For Libya to live happily as the only homeland in unity and solidarity. We say, ‘Libya belongs to the Libyans,’ and we did our best for this. We will continue to do so. The Turkish military is definitely not a foreign power in Libya. Our Libyan friends there are aware that we are there when no one is there” he said.
Akar also talked about his military activities, especially the training given by the Turkish soldiers in Libya.
Last month, the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) dismissed 56 soldiers stationed in Libya, after they filed a complaint against their commander on charges of bullying.
The TAF terminated the contracts of the specialist sergeants after an investigation was launched into the complaints submitted to the Presidency Communication Centre (CİMER), the Deutsche Welle (DW) reported.
The soldiers accused their Commander of physical and psychological bullying, being forced to collect the trash of Libyan soldiers, train through illness, and chronic verbal abuse,” the DW stated.
“You don’t deserve the money you get. You are nothing. You can complain to me wherever you want, I worked in the legal branch for 9 years and I can fire you in five minutes,” the Commander reportedly told the soldiers, according to the DW.