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Haftar: We will not accept a second Turkish invasion of Libya

August 4, 2020 at 2:56 pm

Libya Chief of Staff, Marshall Khalifa Haftar (C) in Paris, France on 29 May 2018 [LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images]

Retired Libyan Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar attacked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accused him of leading a colonial project based on pillaging, murder and hunger.

In a speech published on Facebook yesterday, Haftar said: “We do not accept a backward Turk to rule us again, we do not like to see a Turk walking on his feet in front of our heroes.”

Haftar stressed during his speech, in which he sought to raise the morale of his fighters after the defeats they suffered in the west of the country, that they should not show mercy with those he described as the aggressors “because they do not deserve mercy”.

Haftar said that his forces included a large number of fighters from the Salafi movement, describing them as patriots, and urging them to resist what he described as a new Turkish invasion of Libya.

In another speech given on Saturday, Haftar said Turks stayed in Libya for 300 years, during which Libyans suffered from killing and looting, adding that Libyans will not accept colonialism again.

Last Sunday, Turkish President Erdogan confirmed that the information and operational support provided by the Turkish intelligence service in Libya has changed the rules of the game and contributed to stopping the progress of Haftar’s forces, according to Al Jazeera.

Erdogan threatened, at the beginning of the year, that he would teach Haftar and his allies “the lesson they deserve” if he resumed his attacks against the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

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