Cairo quiet as Ankara reaches out to eastern Libya
Cairo and Ankara are at odds over Libya and the wider Mediterranean region, but Ankara’s recent contacts with Cairo’s allies in eastern Libya might encourage rapprochement between the two regional powers.
Turkish Ambassador to Libya Kenan Yilmaz met on Jan. 19 with Libyan parliament speaker Aqila Saleh in his hometown of al-Qubah, west of the seat of parliament in Tobruk.
Yilmaz said in press remarks that there are plans to “reopen [Turkey’s] consulate-general in Benghazi,” which has been closed since 2014 during the height of the conflict in Libya’s second-biggest city.
Yilmaz also visited Benghazi on Jan. 29 where he met with municipality officials and a number of parliamentarians.
Both visits appear to be follow-ups to a recent trip, the first of its kind, by Libyan parliamentarians to Ankara where they met with Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Most of those parliament members were also present during the ambassador’s visit to Benghazi.
