A week after the Turkish parliament approved a government motion for a military deployment in Libya, the scope of the mission remains unclear, but Ankara seems inclined to make use of non-military elements, including militia from Syria. While recruiting fighters from Syria may be seen as a relatively easy task for Turkey, the move appears to be opening rifts in opposition ranks.

In a television interview Jan. 5, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would set up an operation center in Libya under the command of a Turkish lieutenant general and that Turkish soldiers had already started to “gradually” move into the war-torn country, where Ankara backs the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord. The Turkish troops, he stressed, will not have a combat role. According to Erdogan, “The aim of the Turkish Armed Forces is not to fight or make others fight … [but] to prevent developments that could lead to humanitarian tragedies and drag the region into instability.” Yet Turkey will have “other units as combat forces,” he said. In remarks the following day, Erdogan highlighted the role of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), saying that it “is duly performing its duties in Libya.”

The reason a combat force remains on the back burner is likely linked to disappointing results from Erdogan’s contacts with Russia, the United States and Tunisia, Libya’s northwestern neighbor on which Ankara had pinned hope for a logistical route and bases. In his unscheduled visit to Tunisia Dec. 25, Erdogan was given an unexpectedly chilly welcome. Shortly after the visit, Tunisian President Kais Saied denied his country had aligned with Turkey, Algeria and the Tripoli-based Libyan government against the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Hifter, saying that Tunisia would not be part of any such axis. Parliament speaker Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of Ennahda and a close friend of Erdogan in the Muslim Brotherhood network, said that Tunisia was not part of the Libyan conflict and could act only as a mediator. 

As international and regional conditions dictate a limited or covert Turkish intervention in Libya, proxies are gaining prominence. The source of the “other” combat forces that Erdogan mentioned is the militia pool in northern Syria, especially the Syrian National Army, an umbrella force trained and equipped by Turkey.