'Turkey is not only Erdogan's policy' - visiting Turkish opposition MPs tell Libya rival govt

One of Libya's rival governments held a forum in Benghazi on Monday with Turkish opposition lawmakers to discuss restoring relations between Ankara and eastern Libya after years of tension.

For years the country has been split between rival administrations, one based in the east and one in the west, each supported by rogue militias and foreign governments.

Turkey has been a prominent backer of Libya's Tripoli-based government, headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Monday's forum in Benghazi was attended by Libya’s Future Movement Party and Turkey’s Peoples' Democratic Movement Party. Lawmakers from the Turkish opposition group oppose what they see as Erdogan’s policy of intervention in Libya.

“We do not accept Erdogan's one-sided policy in Libya especially the maritime deal”, said Turkish MP Tulay Hatimogullari.

In October, Libya's Tripoli-based government signed preliminary economic and maritime deals with Turkey in a move that inflamed tensions between it and the country's other administration.

Abdelhadi Al-Hwaij, the head of the Libyan Future Movement Party and a former foreign minister, said on Monday that Erdogan does not represent the whole of Turkey and that members of the Turkish People's Democratic Movement share his party's beliefs of “peace and democracy”.

Libya has been mired in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

The country has been ruled by rival governments for most of the past decade. There are now two administrations claiming legitimacy: Dbeibah’s in Tripoli and another parliament-appointed government chaired by Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha.