Al Jazeera Centre for Studies organised a seminar in Ankara in partnership with the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) and in collaboration with Al Jazeera Mubasher entitled, “Eastern Mediterranean Conflict and the Libyan Crisis,” on Thursday, 16 January 2020. A select group of academics and researchers participated and discussed the problems of energy discovery in the Eastern Mediterranean and the conflict between some of the concerned states regarding extraction and exportation. They also discussed Turkish security and military support for Libya and its impact on the restoration of balance between conflicting parties and the prevention of further chaos.
The panellists were: Nebahat Yaşar, researcher at ORSAM; Recep Yorulmaz, Director of Economic Studies at ORSAM; Nizar Krikish, Director of al-Bayan Center for Studies; and Essam Abdelshafi, President of the International Relations Academy.
The participants asserted that Turkish support for the Libyan government aims to create balance without which Libya could face more chaos and rupture. They indicated that the recent Turkish-Libyan agreement stipulates training and the building of a military institution and other systems to reinforce the centralization of the state and enable it to resist foreign intervention, particularly that of Egypt and UAE, that supports one party at the expensive of another.
The speakers also explained that Libya needs a correct geostrategic equation and to re-establish the state, and that the aforementioned agreement will facilitate that due to Turkey’s weight and power, which has prevented the exacerbation of the crisis and the amplification of the conflict. Libya has resources that incite greed and a vast geography that renders control of its borders difficult, making it an important field in the conflict especially with the discovery of oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterranean – whose reserves amount to about 1.7 billion oil and 122 trillion square feet of gas.