Exclusive: 2,000 Syrian fighters deployed to Libya to support government

Anti-Turkish sentiment could grow after Ankara agrees to help fight against insurgency.

Anti-Turkish sentiment could grow after Ankara agrees to help fight against insurgency.

In a country that used to stand for freedom of expression, self-censorship is soaring.
“For the past five years, I’ve been going to the police station every month or so to file a complaint about death threats, not insults, death threats”. — Marika Bret, a journalist at Charlie Hebdo today, January 8, 2020.

“Turkey and [Libya’s] Government of National Accord reached an unusual agreement to essentially carve up much of the energy-rich eastern Mediterranean between them — threatening to cut out Greece and Cyprus from the coming bonanza.” — Foreign Policy, Keith Johnson, December 23, 2019.
A woman who criticized the United States on social media for the killing of a top Iranian general was arrested Tuesday in Kosovo.

On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the trial of 24 suspected jihadists linked to the massacre that killed 12 people at the satirical weekly has opened in Paris. Only five of the suspects are expected to appear in the dock, with most presumed dead in Iraq or Syria.
German prosecutors have filed terror charges against a Syrian man accused of commanding a unit of Islamic State group fighters in his homeland.
A key Iranian response to the U.S. strike that killed Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani will be to try to permanently oust the 6,000 U.S. troops currently stationed in Iraq.

Erdoğan seems to think that his best defense in the Mediterranean power game is an offense.
One emerging power in Libya, however, is not a Western state actor…. Russia has the potential to step into the Libyan theater with a bigger proxy and direct force, to establish its second permanent Mediterranean military presence.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara will materialize its two agreements with the Libyan government on defense and maritime rights next year, a few days ahead of a parliament vote on deploying troops to the North African country.

Kurds are to be awarded to the Turkish Security Services for their Brilliant Operations undertaken since early November 2018.