The Ankara ferry, which in late March sailed from İzmir to Misurata, was waiting off the coast due to the situation in the city, which is described by some as nightmarish. The critical shortage of medical supplies at the Misurata Hospital, which could not function due to lack of first aid material and equipment rang alarm bells in Ankara, and Davutoğlu on Friday night initiated telephone conversations with both Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi and opposition national council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, diplomatic sources told Today’s Zaman on Sunday.
Following the talks, a 12-hours long temporary cease-fire was declared around the port as of Saturday and the Ankara ferry managed to get 230 wounded people and patients and 60 people accompanying these people on board, the sources said, noting that when the ship entered the port, the clashes were still continuing in the city as cease-fire was only limited to port areas.
Since officials guessed right from the beginning what might happen on the ground, 12 F-16 military airplane and four tanker aircrafts have been assigned to protect the Ankara ferry, while TCG Yıldırım Frigate is accompanying the ferry. The overall operation is being carried out under “a national umbrella,” officials said, while noting that coordination has been maintained with NATO.
The Directorate General for Disaster Affairs has been involved with the operation during the temporary cease-fire, while Davutoğlu has been in constant contact with Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Davutoğlu were regularly updated by Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Halit Çevik during the operation.
The ferry left the Misurata port at 10:20 PM and the 15-member health team aboard has been offering preliminary treatment to those 230 people. The ferry was expected to enter the Benghazi port in later afternoon on Sunday after Today’s Zaman went to print.
“Nobody who came to the port was rejected by the ferry, either from Muammar Gaddafi forces or from rebels. There are also citizens of Chad among those 290 people,” sources underlined. At Benghazi, the ferry would leave those who wished so, and evacuate if there are any willing Turkish citizen there and then sail to İzmir.
