Libya upheaval: Why Turkey is mum over heightened tensions in Tripoli

ANKARA — Turkey, one of the two foreign powers with the largest military presence in Libya, has maintained conspicuous silence over the recent political upheaval among Libyan rival armed groups threatening the 2020 cease-fire. Experts argue that Ankara's position might be linked to efforts to preserve its flourishing rapprochement with Egypt as well as its losing patience with some of its allies in Tripoli.

Western experts and officials have been expressing concerns in recent weeks that a fragile 2020 cease-fire between Libya's two warring parties — namely, forces loyal to Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) and Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s self-styled army in the east — may collapse, as brewing tensions in the country torn by civil war have intensified after its Tripoli-based government's attempts to dismiss Central Bank Governor Sadiq al-Qabir.  

On Monday, rivals of the Tripoli government based in the country's east threatened to halt oil production and exports from the oil fields under their control in a major show of support for Qabir. OPEC member Libya is Africa's biggest oil producer with an estimated 50 billion barrels in reserve, and the eastern fields account for almost all of Libya's oil production.

Libya descended into turmoil in 2011 after the ouster of the country’s longtime dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, in a popular uprising backed by NATO. Next came a bloody civil war between Turkish-backed western forces and Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) in the east, supported by Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.