ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated that he’s getting ready to deploy Turkish troops in Libya to support the country’s internationally-recognised government in Tripoli. Erdogan flew to Tunisia on Wednesday in a surprise visit that’s likely to include meetings with members of the government of neighbouring Libya. “If there is an invitation, we would of course evaluate it,” Erdogan said in a televised press conference jointly held with Tunisia’s new president, Kais Saied. Erdogan said mercenaries fighting in Libya include 5,000 men from Sudan and another 2,000 from Wagner, a group headed by a confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Turkey has controlled northern Cyprus since sending troops there in 1974 after a failed attempt to unite the island with Greece, and wants a share of Cyprus’s gas revenue.

Source: Libya Today December 25, 2019 14:37 UTC