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Ankara Moves to Keep Turkey-Libya Memorandum Alive After Greek Diplomatic Push

Turkey signals the agreement remains in force and even usable for military purposes following recent Greek outreach in Libya.

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Turkey has sought to reaffirm the validity of its maritime agreement with Libya, amid heightened diplomatic activity by Greece in both Tripoli and Benghazi.

In a post on X, Turkey’s Ministry of Defence highlighted that, during the multinational special forces exercise Flintlock 2026 in Libya, a Turkish AKINCI UAV took off from Turkey and joined the drill by “following the boundaries of the maritime jurisdiction zone defined in the 2019 agreement between Turkey and Libya”.

The move appears aimed at reinforcing Ankara’s position that the Turkey-Libya memorandum remains active, while also signalling that it can be applied operationally in a military context.

The timing of the statement is linked to recent visits by Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis to Libya. During his latest trip to Tripoli, he held talks with the leadership in western Libya, while earlier visits included meetings in Benghazi with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his sons Saddam and Khaled.

Athens has agreed with both sides to strengthen bilateral relations and continue discussions on the delimitation of maritime zones, including the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

Flintlock is AFRICOM’s flagship annual special forces exercise. This year it was held in Sirte in cooperation with Italy’s Special Operations Command. According to the US embassy in Libya, the participation of forces from both eastern and western Libya was a notable development.

At the same time, Turkey is working to improve ties with Benghazi. In this context, a unit from the Libyan National Army, now under the overall command of Haftar’s son Saddam, arrived in Izmir aboard a Turkish military transport aircraft from Benghazi to take part in the multinational EFES 2026 exercise hosted by Turkey.

Source: protothema.gr

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#TURKEY #LIBYA #WORLD

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