Gaddafi told Le Journal du Dimanche he was embroiled in a fight against Islamist terrorism and expressed dismay at the absence of support from abroad. “I am surprised nobody understands this is a fight against terrorism,” Gaddafi said, recalling that Libyan security services had cooperated with Western security forces. “We have helped you a lot these past few years. So why is it that when we are in a fight against terrorism here in Libya no one helps us in return?” Gaddafi lamented.
“There would be Islamic jihad in front of you, in the Mediterranean,” he said. “[Osama] bin Laden’s people would come to impose ransoms on land and sea. We will go back to the time of Red Beard, of pirates, of Ottomans imposing ransoms on boats,” referring to Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, the famous Ottoman admiral who dominated the Mediterranean for decades in the 16th century.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi’s son Saif al Islam, who has become the face of Libya since the uprising, tried to draw similarities in an interview with Al Jazeera English on Friday between the Libyan army’s brutal repression of rebels and the Turkish army’s military operations against terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members. He said it is important to look at how Turkey has dealt with its own Kurdish citizens, adding that Turkey bombed Kurdish militias. When the interviewer said this has never worked and the problem has never gone away, Gaddafi said the Turkish people would never accept Kurds having armed militias fighting against the government.
