After the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and the overthrowing of their dictators, it did not come off surprising that Libyans were encouraged to go for a kind of revolution that was unique to themselves.

At any rate, people were quite frustrated with the Kaddafi administration, which had seized the authority through the revolution that a 27-year-old military officer led. The Kaddafi revolution taking a shape from bottom to up held in a set of various hierarchically illegal networks.

It was a kind of intelligence-state but Libyans were not the type of people who would stay quiet. It is likely that because Kaddafi knew the nature of the people, he proactively supported many international foundations that had titles such as ‘independence’ or ‘freedom’. It also had given a hint as to what type of organization and opposition his opponents were developing.

Thus, as the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ apolitical revolutions harbored on the Tripoli shore, it was going to set off a severe struggle. Neither the opposition group achieved an easy victory, nor did Kaddafi easily give up. He continued to resist to the end.

Years ago when I was visiting the grave of Turgut Reis, who was an historically famous sailor, an Arabian officer gave me a long preach – who knows, maybe he had no other work to do. The gist of this non-official preaching was how Libyans were such a warrior nation and that Libya had no fear of Americans. That kind of discourse was understandable, as Libya was under an embargo at that time. He exaggerated it to the point that he claimed Mustafa Kemal had learnt how to fight from Libyans during his post in Libya.

The events since the Arab spring passed have always reminded me of that tomb officer’s words. Thinking about military struggle since the onset and the bloodshed besides the unattainable tranquility… The clan structure of the country, the gang clashes and tribal wars were so destructive in building the unity of the political integrity. However, we are talking about a tradition in which in case of any small disagreement, the political struggle is bound to be resolved with the gunfire.

Nevertheless, is it possible to reduce the instability that occurred in Libya only to the belligerent nature and stern character of Libyans? Just as how the incident that took place in Tunisia was reduced to the struggle for power between Pro-westerns and Islamists or to the case of Turkey 20 years ago where it witnessed ideological polarizations and political balances. The reason why the revolution story in Libya has never ended has to do with its internal dynamics, the effect types of traditional structures in politics and the external dynamics both in the sense of struggling for influence and the special status of Libya.

Before anything else, the political justification in Libya is obtained through religious argumentation. What the western media represents as liberal or pro western names in Libya corresponds to the religious or at least religiously compatible or non-conflicting groups or leaders in the conditions of Turkey. The demarcation line of the Islamist is not always a clear and easy one.

Despite all these sociological and political differences, the reason why the political chaos and the central structure seem weak actually derives from the reason that it holds a privilege position for its strategically rich oil reserves as a divergent character from both of its two revolutionist counterparts. The Arab spring was purporting that the Middle East was to be integrated to the global system and the revision of its lifestyle, consuming relationships, its political and social perception, and that it had to build sufficient relationships in itself while a permanent one with the west.

Besides the fact that it eliminated the Islamic world as being an alternative, the Arab spring purported to willingly replace the guardian regimes maintained by expensive methods in each of the countries.

However, the strategic interests and current equation does not enable this completely at the time being. In the example of Libya, where such a mild transition was not attained, the most prominently effective factor of the Arab spring, that is the energy resources and their distribution was not settled. Therefore, the so-called Arab spring misconception was never going to visit the Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

The energy resources Libya possesses is whetting the European’s appetite whose rivers are drying up, especially that of France and Italy. One can read the American recognition of France for a military operation on the front as a kind of bribery given to France to collaborate with America in its subsequent strategic and military operations. As a matter of fact, as soon as Kaddafi was overthrown, the energy agreements were renewed with the so-called countries including new conditions.

An incident which took place a few days ago portrays different characters of the picture from the previous coup attempts: a general who was captured in Chad during Kaddafi’s commandment and was later rescued by the US and taken to USA has recently showed up. General Hafter who returned to Libya after the Arab spring and considered unreliable because of his constant suspicious relations has made a breakthrough this time directly against Islamists.

He took over the Libyan parliament and kidnapped some MPs and made a statement that some MPs who had relations with Islamic organizations were arrested.

Let us see if the general, who was captured in Chad in 1987 and rescued by Americans later on, or more correctly, the understudy will be effective in giving Libya its redesign?

The US, who could not digest the slaughter of its own ambassador, will definitely take its revenge on Libyans. However, Libya will not easily be taken control of like Mali where France had engaged a military operation with thousand soldiers.

On the other hand, speaking realistically, the strategic target of oil pipes that extend from the Great Sahara to Benghazi will be much more determining.

Ýlgili YazýlarEnglish