“As a part of the alliance and bilaterally we’re in very close touch with the Turkish government about aims and means, and Turkey is absolutely on board for this common mission at NATO,” Philip Gordon, the US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, told a press briefing at the State Department on Monday.
Gordon said Turkey was a key part of conclusions that emerged from an international Libya contact group meeting in Doha and a gathering of NATO ministers in Berlin last week. “What is clear and what all of these governments [that participated in the meetings] have signed up to is the basic principle that Gaddafi needs to go,” he said.
Turkey previously opposed a NATO role in Libya, saying the conflict should be solved without foreign intervention. But it revised its position and urged NATO to step in once US-led aerial strikes on Gaddafi forces, initiated by France, began following a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force to protect civilians. Turkey is now a main contributor to the alliance’s efforts to enforce an arms embargo and provide humanitarian aid to Libyans. It, however, refuses to take part in NATO’s aerial strikes to enforce a no-fly zone. Ankara has also proposed a roadmap for a political solution and says it has been in touch with both the Gaddafi camp and the opposition to find ways to end the conflict.
Asked whether Turkey’s dialogue with both Libyan sides was helpful to NATO’s mission or a distraction from its objectives, Gordon said: “It is true that a couple of envoys from Tripoli have gone off and had discussions, and we understand that they are hearing the same thing everywhere they have gone, including Turkey. And so I think the line of the international community there is pretty clear. And look at the chair statement out of Doha, where it said that Gaddafi has lost all legitimacy and needs to leave power and leave the future of Libya up to an inclusive political process for the people of Libya.
“The NATO governments, the 28 allies plus the six partners who were there, including Turkey, signed up to a statement that strongly endorsed those conclusions in Doha, and I think the United States was adequately clear as well, that Gaddafi needs to leave power. … Any envoys or emissaries that have come out of Tripoli have heard just that in unison from the international community.”
