Greek-Turkish Relations
Libyan MP: the Turkish–Libyan memorandum “may cause tension with Greece”, but Libya’s interests come first – a “bargaining chip” against the major powers
Tarek al-Jarousi, a member of the Libyan House of Representatives’ defence committee, said approving the memorandum may cause tension with Greece and some European countries, but that Libya’s interests are the priority.
The approval of the Turkish–Libyan memorandum “may cause tension between Libya and Greece and some European countries, but on this issue our priority is Libya’s interests,” said Tarek al-Jarousi, a member of the Defence and National Security Committee of the House of Representatives in eastern Libya. He was speaking in an interview with the television channel of the Libyan outlet Al Wasat on Tuesday, October 20, hours after the House’s unanimous approval of the memorandum in Benghazi.
“We approved the agreement on maritime jurisdiction zones with Turkey because it is linked to Libya’s national security. In addition, it offers strategic, economic and political advantages,” the Libyan MP said.
The memorandum was signed on November 27, 2019 by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the then head of the Tripoli government, Fayez al-Sarraj. It delimits a single maritime zone between the Turkish coast and the coast of Cyrenaica, ignoring Crete, Rhodes, Karpathos and Kastellorizo. The House in Benghazi had rejected it in 2020 with decisions Nos. 1 and 6, which it repealed on Tuesday after the removal of Aguila Saleh as its speaker. Ankara celebrated, with Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser Çağrı Erhan writing on X “Congratulations to our Blue Homeland”.
A “bargaining chip against the major powers”
Al-Jarousi presented the ratification as an instrument of power for Benghazi: “Approving the agreement gives Libya a bargaining chip and a political standing vis-à-vis the major powers. It also increases the likelihood that Libya will be treated as an equal commercial, military and political partner.” These are the views of a member of the Benghazi House and not of Greece or the EU.
Athens has already answered with a Foreign Ministry statement calling the memorandum “spurious, null and void” and stressing that “geography and the international Law of the Sea are not changed by unilateral, legally unfounded parliamentary decisions”, since Turkey and Libya have no opposite or adjacent coasts, while Gerapetritis spoke by phone with his Cypriot and Egyptian counterparts. The presidents of the European Council and the Commission, António Costa and Ursula von der Leyen, called the agreement “null and void” and expressed solidarity with Greece and Cyprus. From Benghazi, Saddam Haftar welcomed the approval, speaking of “cooperation and investment opportunities” with Turkey.