Libya, Erdogan's gateway to Africa

Ankara sees control over Libya as an important gateway to enhancing influence in the Sahel and West Africa and implementing its expansionist agenda in the region. 

Hence, it seeks to form regional allies that have geopolitical interests with Libya, such as Niger and Chad, with the aim of using them as a Turkish focal point for incursion into West Africa.

Some reports indicate that there are 229 senior leaders of terrorist organisations from the Al-Nusra Front and Daesh who were sent by Ankara from Turkey to Tripoli, Libya, which means that they could spread to other regions in Africa.

Within this framework, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that according to February 2020 statistics, up to 4,700 terrorists who are financed and trained by Ankara exist in Libya, while 1,800 terrorists are training in Ankara, 64 terrorists have arrived from Europe, and dozens of these have fled to Europe, specifically Italy.

The latest move by Turkey was the security agreement reached with Niger in July 2020 with the aim of finding a public foothold in the Sahel and Sahara region. Some reports indicate that Ankara is seeking to establish a military base in West Africa, especially in Niger, near the border with Libya.

Turkey has an expansionist project in which Libya constitutes a starting point towards the Sahel, the Sahara and West Africa. Therefore, Ankara seeks to cooperate with some of the powers of political Islam in the region with the aim of changing the balance of power through the extremist organisations that Ankara seeks to establish links between them in Libya.

There are reports indicating the existence of an agreement between Ankara and the Boko Haram group to transfer some of the group’s members to southern Libya that is under the control of the Libyan National Army (LNA).