The FINANCIAL — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced over the weekend that Turkey will help reconstruct the damaged infrastructure in shelled Libyan cities and will rush aid to Libyan people who are still in urgent need of basic humanitarian supplies, especially in the last holdout cities where Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) troops are still fighting with Gaddafi loyalists.
“We will reconstruct the damaged schools, courthouses and police stations in Libya. We will instruct [Turkish] contractors in these areas to take action right away. Moreover, we will also build a new Parliament building [for the Libyan people],” Erdoğan told a group of embedded reporters during his return flight from Libya last week.
The prime minister also announced that Turkey would send six planes next week loaded with food and water to Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown upon which Libyan fighters have converged and are preparing to take over the city. “The supplies will be parachuted,” Erdoğan said, adding that the NTC will assume control of the city. “Then, the only important place left for Gaddafi will be Sebha,” he predicted.
On Saturday Turkey began drops of 22 tons of humanitarian aid into the Libyan city of Bani Walid to the south of Sirte, according to an announcement by the prime minister's office. Two military cargo planes left Ankara on Saturday to deliver the food and supplies to around 10,000 people in Bani Walid in need of urgent help, a statement appearing of the office's website read. As there is no airport in the city, the aid packages were dropped by parachute.
The Anatolia new agency reported on Sunday that Turkish planes parachuted 14 tons of aid to two locations in Libya. One of the cargo planes took off from Benghazi Military Airport at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday and delivered food aid to the south of Qatrun, near the Libyan-Nigerien border. A second plane dropped aid into Bani Walid an hour later but came under anti-aircraft fire on its return flight. The plane was not hit and pilots reported the coordinates of the attack to NTC authorities who later launched an investigation into the incident.
The second plane also carried Anatolia new agency reporters based in Benghazi. One of the pilots, Murat Mocan, told reporters that "we are honored to perform an abroad operation of this type for the first time since the Cyprus Peace Operation."
Erdoğan visited Arab Spring countries last week and stopped in the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and Tacura. He held rallies in some Libyan cities and addressed huge crowds that were waiting to hear what the Turkish prime minister had to say. In Benghazi, the cradle of the revolution that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi, Erdoğan urged Libyans to maintain their unity and brotherhood. “As you are well aware, if you do not gather in unity for the future of Libya and instead give in to revenge, reprisal and personal greed, your all achievements will all have been in vain,” he said, calling Libyans to show solidarity.
Erdoğan also addressed an enthusiastic crowd in Martyrs' Square, renamed from the Gaddafi-era Green Square, in Trablus on Friday. He called for unity as a nation for the sake of the future of their country. “Do not give way to those who have plans for Libya's resources. Libya belongs to Libyans and it should remain so. God bless all of you,” Erdoğan said.
Speaking with reporters, Erdoğan criticized the West for holding out on frozen Libyan assets and money in foreign bank accounts. “Libya has funds in the amount of $160 to $170 billion in Western banks. However, [the West] will not release these funds. They circulate these funds throughout the world financial system, generating $1 trillion. Of course the Western financial system generates profits from [Libyan assets]. Do they share this profit with Libya? When I ask this question, everyone remains silent,” he remarked.
Stressing that Turkey has the capacity and potential to extend help to countries in the region, Erdoğan vowed to keep aid flowing to African nations as well. “Not everything is about money. A hospital with a 200-bed capacity may not mean much in Turkey, but it means a world to people in Mogadishu,” he said, referring to Turkey's promise to help the Somali people.
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