Turkey FM: Our troops in Libya for education, training only
January 22, 2020, 9:44 am

Turkey FM: Our troops in Libya for education, training only

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. (File photo: Reuters)

Turkish troops are only in Libya for education and training purposes, said Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.

“Our personnel is there for training and education, nothing else,” he said. Turkey has sent troops to Libya to support the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), which has been accused of accommodating extremist groups.

Cavusoglu also blamed Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar for allegedly undermining efforts to reach a truce in Libya's long-standing conflict.

Libya is currently in turmoil, with oil output grounding to a halt after the failure of the recent conference in Berlin, which sought to bring together the GNA's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj with rival commander Haftar to sign a peace treaty.

“In Berlin, we gathered together with all the actors including P5 countries, and we all committed there for a sustainable truce or ceasefire. Al-Sarraj also did, but Haftar didn’t make any announcement,” he said.

When prompted that Turkey and Russia were on different sides in Syria and Libya, Cavusoglu said that it shows Turkey's capacity to work together with other actors, but that Turkey is opposed to Russia in other conflicts including Georgia and Ukraine.

Cavusoglu was speaking at the Geopolitical Outlook: The Middle East and North Africa panel alongside the Omani foreign minister and Jordanian prime minister.

source: Tommy Hilton

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
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For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”