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and Babacan working together​, saying: “The scope for acting together within Babacan’s party has narrowed because the two sides are taking their own line. Of course there would have been many benefits in forming a joint party, but the will for this did not emerge.”
Greece has described an agreement between conflict-torn Libya’s internationally recognised government and Turkey on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea as absurd ​because it ignores the presence of the Greek island of Crete between the Libyan and Turkish coasts.
The new agreements were signed at a meeting on November 27 between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Fayez al-Serraj, head of the Tripoli-based government. Turkey backs that government against military forces led by Khalifa Haftar based in eastern Libya.
Turkey announced the accord plus an agreement on expanded security and military cooperation on November 28. But Ankara gave no details of the announced memorandum of understanding on the “delimitation of maritime jurisdictions” and failed to specify where it sees Turkish and Libyan waters as meeting.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was quoted by Reuters as saying the maritime accord between Libya and Turkey “ignores something that is blatantly obvious, which is that between those two countries there is the large geographical land mass of Crete. Consequently such an attempt borders on the absurd.”
Egypt described the deal as “illegal and not binding or affecting the interests and the rights of any third parties”.
The government in Tripoli confirmed the new agreements but gave no details.
Turkey orders the detention of additional 133 military personnel over suspected links to the Gulenist network Ankara claims organised the attempted coup in 2016​. State-run news service Anadolu Agency said the suspects were being sought in an operation centred in the western coastal province of Izmir. It added that 82 of them were serving members in the military.
There is no sign of the purge launched after the failed putsch coming to an end. In the more than three years since the coup attempt foundered, more than 77,000 people have been jailed pending trial while around 150,000 civil servants, military personnel and others have been sacked or suspended from their jobs. Widespread arrests are still carried out routinely, local reports indicate, while Turkey remains the world’s biggest jailer of journalists.
Critics of Erdogan say he has used the abortive coup as a pretext to crack down on dissent.
Turkey has purchased 27,800 tonnes of scrap metal from Venezuela’s state-run import-export company Venezuelan Corporation of Foreign Trade (Corpovex)​, according to Bloomberg. The news agency cited a video posted on Twitter by Corpovex on November 13 that showed a container being loaded on the ship Anshun, which was spotted on August 30 in Turkey’s Iskenderun port. It has been operated by a business ally of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Limak Holding, since 2011.
Amid US pressure on the Venezuelan regime, Turkey has stayed a firm supporter of strongman president Nicolas Maduro. Venezuelan gold has been shipped to Turkey for refinement since 2018. Some $900mn worth was shipped that year.
21​ TURKEY Country Report​ December 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com