Turkey fixed on encircling Greece with the help of Libyan rebels

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Turkey apparently gave some 100 million dollars –in four instalments of cash - to Libyan National Transitional Council, under Mahmoud Djibril, thus violating UN resolutions that call for the abstinence of funding of the two warring regions. According to an article in the Turkish daily ZAMAN that was featured in Greek on the defence.gr website, the writer asks why was it so important for Turkey to finance them.

According to the defencenet.gr, apart from oil and defence contracts Ankara also wants port “string pulling”, or preferred treatment in the creation of operations and anchorage in Libyan spatial territorial waters.

This move, according to the analyst, would allow Turkey to achieve an encirclement of Greece, since it already operates a naval base in Albania. 

And let us not forget the issue of Greek-Libyan Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

But let's look at this astonishing news in more detail:

The article in ZAMAN says that Ankara initially gave 10 million US dollars to the headquarters of the Benghazi rebels, and three further instalments of $ 30 million each followed suit that were given to several rebel delegations that visited Turkey, on August 8, 10 and 21.

The article in defence.gr says that the 100 million dollars are part of an even larger aid "package" of some 300 million dollars of which was promised by Turkish officials in July during the first visit by Davutoglu to Benghazi. Initially, the Turks intended to give yet an even further 100 million as a gift to the leadership of the rebels.

These moves, notes defencenet.gr, shows us that Turkey wants to take a leading role in the race of influencing the emerging forces in the area for its own interests, which as we all have seen has already begun by other countries in Libya as well.

In successive talks in Benghazi, Davutoglu probably achieved profitable contracts for oil and sales of arms to the new regime from the Turkish defence industry.

Thus it can only be concluded that by handing over so much money, Turkey expects to gain a lot from the new regime. And of course there is always the issue of EEZ between Greece and Libya, which, was settled unilaterally by the Greek side on the principle of a "median line".

Also, through this move, Ankara wants to achieve an encirclement of Greece, having permanent defensive operations that begin in Albania and reach the deepest end of the Eastern Mediterranean! 

Original article in Greek: www.defencenet.gr