East Libya movement launches government, challenges Tripoli

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Reuters

Leaders of an autonomy movement in Libya's oil-rich east unilaterally declared a regional government on Sunday, in a challenge to the weak central government as new violence erupted in the restive region.

The announcement is a symbolic blow to efforts by the Tripoli government to reopen eastern oil ports and fields blocked since summer by militias and tribes demanding a greater share of power and oil wealth.

It has no practical implications but is sure to worsen ties between the east and Tripoli which has rejected the self-rule notion. Officials were not immediately available for comment.

Lawlessness has blighted large areas of the OPEC producer since the 2011 war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. The government has been unable to rein in militia groups, armed tribes and radical Islamists.

This is especially true for eastern Libya, known as Cyrenaica, where tribes, activists and militias have been pushing for a federal system sharing power with the west and southern Fezzan.

Leaders of the movement met in the small town of Ajdabiya, close to the oil port of Brega, to launch an autonomous government, supporters said. They named themselves the Barqa, or Cyrenaica, government.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/03/us-libya-security-idUSBRE9A20EX20131103

[JDPriestly]

1. That includes Benghazi I think.Cyrenaica was conquered by Muslim Arabs during the tenure of the seco

Cyrenaica was conquered by Muslim Arabs during the tenure of the second caliph, Omer Bin Khattab, in 643/44,[19] and became known as Barqah after its provincial capital, the ancient city of Barce. After the breakdown of the Ummayad caliphate, it was essentially annexed to Egypt, although still under the same name, first under the Fatimid caliphs and later under the Ayyubid and Mamluk sultanates. Ultimately, it was annexed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1517. It was part of the Tripolitania Vilayet. Its main cities became Benghazi and Derna.
Italian rule

Emir Idris as-Senussi (left), and behind him (from left) Hussein Maziq, Muhammad Sakizli, and Mustafa Ben Halim formed the government of Cyrenaica in late 1940s
Flag of the short-lived emirate of Cyrenaica, 1949–1951.
Littorio Palace in Benghazi was the seat of the Cyrenaican assembly

The Italians occupied Cyrenaica during the Italo-Turkish War in 1911 and declared it an Italian protectorate on 15 October 1912. Three days later, the Ottoman Empire officially ceded the province to the Kingdom of Italy. On 17 May 1919, Cyrenaica was established as an Italian colony, and, on 25 October 1920, the Italian government recognized Sheikh Sidi Idriss as the leader of the Senussi, who was granted the rank of Emir until in 1929. In that year, Italy "derecognized" him and the Senussi. On 1 January 1934, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan were united as the Italian colony of Libya.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrenaica

As I recall, Bunker Hunt, son of H.L. Hunt owned that oil before Ghaddafi took it..

Nelson Bunker Hunt (born February 22, 1926) is an American oil company executive. He is best known as a former billionaire whose fortune collapsed after he and his brother William Herbert Hunt tried but failed to corner the world market in silver.[1] He is also a successful thoroughbred horse breeder. . . .

. . . .

Hunt was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, and currently lives in Dallas, Texas.[3] He is the son of Lyda Bunker and oil tycoon H. L. Hunt and the brother of Lamar Hunt, founder of the American Football League and Kansas City Chiefs.

. . . .

Nelson Bunker Hunt played a very significant role in the discovery and development of the oil fields in Libya, which would later be nationalized by Muammar al-Gaddafi.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Bunker_Hunt

Is this why the ambassadors of Turkey and the US were meeting in Benghazi? Or is this totally unrelated to the murder of the US ambassador in Benghazi?

[Xithras]

3. Benghazi is the capitol of Cyrenaica, if you want to look at it that way.

Here's a much simpler version of it's history:

The Greeks originally founded it as the colony of Pentapolis, and it was briefly independent until it was conquered by the Egyptians and later by Alexander the Great, under which it operated as a vassal state.

It later became a province of the Roman Empire, under which its name gradually changed from Pentapolis to Cyrenaica (after the Cyrenes, the name of the major ethnic group in the area).

After the fall of Rome, the Egyptians took it over again, operating it once more as a vassal state.

When the Muslims invaded, they initially set it up as an independent nation once more, but the Egyptians were tenacious and it didn't take long to get it back.

In the 1500's, the Ottomans annexed it and combined it for the first time with Tripoli to form the vilayet (vassal nation state) of Tripolitania.

In the early 1900's, Italy invaded and turned Tripolitania into a vassal Kingdom oriented toward Italy.

When the British drove the Italians out after WW2, Cyrenaica briefly became an independent kingdom again, but its king rapidly expanded his power and took over all of Libya.

And finally, in 1969, Gaddaffi showed the royal family the door, and began transforming Libya into his own private socialist "paradise".


The lesson from all of this is that Cyrenaica has a complex history. More importantly, it demonstrates the reason for a longstanding cultural rift with Tripoli. The Cyrenaican cultural mores and history are very different from those in Tripoli. The cultural foundations in Tripoli tend to be founded on their Carthaginian, and later Roman, roots. That's why many travelers comment on the fact that Tripoli is a very "European" city...they share the same cultural history as much of Europe. Cyrenaica, on the other hand, has spent most of its history under the control of the Egyptians and Ottomans, and has a cultural and ethnic heritage more closely related to the Egyptians and Arabs to their east. The people of Tripoli and Cyrenaica don't have a lot of culture in common, though outsiders throughout history have been pretty intent on unifying them as a single people (though, after a couple of millennia of trying, nobody has managed to do so yet).

[happyslug]

5. What does Saudi Arabia want????

LETS remember who PAID for the rebellion. That was Saudi Arabia. The House of Saud appeared to have wanted a back door into Egypt.

Now, you have to remember that Egypt has TWO large Islamic Fundamentalist groups, the Moslem Brotherhood AND the Salafists. The Salafists are back by the House of Saud. Bin Laden's Egyptian lieutenant was an ex-Brotherhood member who had defected to the Salafists and then to Bin Laden. Qaddafi has the support of the Brotherhood, but NOT the Salafists.

Thus you can argue that it is the House of Saud that wants an independent Cyrenaica for it provides them with a base to interfere with Egypt if and when Egypt goes out of control.

Egypt is a powder keg. It is claimed that most Egyptian support the Coup, but then why are opponents of the coup attacks if they gather in large numbers? If you have majority support, you do not care about protests. On the other hand, if the opposition has majority support, you suppress even peaceful demonstrations let they become something bigger (i.e. a revolution).

Now, after the coup a lot of Civil Services were resumed, gasoline became more available after having become hard to get in the last months of Morsi's rule (and when he had little control of gasoline distribution, for in Egypt that is controlled by private companies with massive connections to the Army).

On the other hand, starvation and high food prices has become more common in Egypt since the coup, for these are concerns of the people most supportive of Morsi and the Brotherhood, not the ruling elite.

The first "hearing" today in the trial of President Morsi, appears to have became a farce. Morsi, knowns he has been found guilty of Murder of people who attack his Presidential Palace who the Egyptian Police refused to stop, and when the Brotherhood member shown up to stop the attack, a fight broke out and both some of the attacks and members of the Brotherhood were killed. Worse, photo of people being tortured are in dispute, both sides saying it shows the other side doing the torture during that protest. This reminds me of the Famous Photo showing a group of peasants being shot during the Spanish Civil War, the Headlines ran, brave supporters of the opposition being killed by Communists. The problem was it was Communists being shot, not Communists doing the shooting. I suspect the same with the "Photos" of torture of "Prisoners", I suspect it is of Moslem Brotherhood member being tortured, but we MAY see that at trial (or we may not).

My take is the House of Saud is in a fight with Iran. The House of Saud is spreading its money all over the middle east to strengthen its control. Iran is more defensive but appears to have more low level support (but none in Egypt). While Iran has little support in Egypt, it is the most populated Arab country and thus critical for Saudi Arabia. The Moslem Brotherhood opposes the present Government of Syria, but also opposes the Wahhabists of Saudi Arabia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi_movement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/muslimbrotherhood.html

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. I hope Tripoli doesn't send an armored column to take Benghazi. That would be too rich.

The Islamist radicals there could call in NATO to protect them.

[Igel]

4. Deja woo.

The idea that doing the same thing for the second time is both novel and will lead to different results.

Would be ironic.