Libya: yet another affront for Italy

(To Tiziano Ciocchetti)
24/10/20

While today the West is celebrating the truce reached (but for how long?) Between Haftar and al-Sarraj, yet another affront by the Turks towards Italy takes a back seat.

Not content with blackmailing Europe with refugees from Syria (€ 6 billion to keep them in Anatolia), Sultan Erdoğan also takes control of the Libyan coast guard.

Moreover, as our readers will know, the patrol boats supplied with the pseudo coast guards were provided by the Italian government (specifically the Gentiloni and later Conte governments), as part of the agreements with Tripoli to limit the flow of immigrants from the Libyan coasts.

Now these units are in the hands of the Turks who have taken on the task of training crews to patrol the search and rescue area.

In 2019 the Conte bis executive gave 10 patrol boats to the government of al-Sarraj, in the hope (proved vain) that they would serve to limit departures from the coasts.

Ankara will thus have access to additional vessels - at no cost - to control the Southern Mediterranean. In this way, the Turks will be able to decide when to intervene to curb migratory flows and when to let them go to Italy.

Photo: presidency of the republic of Turkey