Erdoğan meets head of Libya's presidential council
President Recep Tayyip Erdou011fan, right, shakes hands with Fayez al-Sarraj, the Chairman of the Libyan Presidential Council (AP Photo)


President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met the head of Libya's Presidential Council Fayez al-Sarraj Monday.

The Presidential Council is affiliated with Libya's U.N.-backed unity government based in Tripoli.

The meeting between the president and al-Sarraj was held at Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul.

The closed-door meeting lasted for about an hour.

Relations between Turkey and Libya have gained new momentum since Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's visit back in May 2016 to begin the process of reopening the Turkish embassy in Tripoli, which has been closed since 2014 due to the security reasons. Turkey officially reopened its embassy in Libya last month after two years of closure, which is viewed as a contribution to Libya gaining back its stability and reviving bilateral relations between the two countries.

Furthermore, Turkey supported Libya in combating the terror group Daesh in Derna, Benghazi and Sirte, having recently signed the Vienna Communique, paving the way for Libya to provide arms in fighting against Daesh.After the 2011 Revolution in Libya, Turkey had anticipated a strong alliance with Libya and was the first country to appoint an envoy to the new authorities in Tripoli in September 2011. Turkey had trained 804 police officers and 299 soldiers upon the Libyan government's request after the revolution. In addition, Turkey has followed the political crisis and armed conflicts in Libya since 2014, and also supported U.N.-brokered peace talks which led an agreement provided stability to Libya in December 2015.