Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan traveled to Libya on Aug. 11 and 12, visiting both Tripoli and Benghazi, in what appears to be the first time a Turkish foreign minister has made a simultaneous visit to meet competing sides in the Libyan conflict.
Fidan first met in Tripoli with Libyan Government of National Unity Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, Presidential Council Chair Mohamed al-Menfi, and High State Council Chair Mohamed Miftah Takala, among other officials. 'In Tripoli, there is genuinely strong support for Libya's reunification,” said Fidan.
In Benghazi, Fidan met with Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army in the east, and Aguila Saleh, Speaker of the House of Representatives — a meeting described as something unlikely to have taken place a few years ago, underscoring how far Turkey's posture toward the country's rival power centers has shifted.
Speaking to reporters before leaving Benghazi, Fidan said unification between eastern and western Libya enjoyed broad support, adding: 'We will continue to play our constructive role, our mediating role, here,' according to Anadolu Agency.
The US-led efforts to unify Libya continues.
Fidan said Libya had witnessed a highly turbulent 15 years since the revolution, but that the period since 2019 had been calm and free of war. Noting that construction was rising in both Tripoli and Benghazi and that Turkish contractors had taken on major projects in Libya, Fidan said that cooperation between Turkey and Libya was deepening.
Turkey supported the Tripoli government against Benghazi during the civil war that followed the collapse of the Gaddafi regime. Ankara signed a maritime jurisdiction agreement with the Government of National Accord in 2019, and in early 2020, parliament voted to send troops to Libya. Turkey thereby took a clear side in the conflict, and Turkish-supplied drones went on to play a game-changing role on the Libyan battlefield.
Following the ceasefire between the two sides, relations between Ankara and Benghazi have gradually improved, driven in part by shared commercial interests, as Turkey has set out a goal of a united and unified Libya. In 2025, Saddam Haftar, son of General Khalifa Haftar and deputy commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army, visited Ankara, followed by three military-technical delegations. National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief İbrahim Kalın later traveled to Benghazi and met with Haftar.
