Libyan National Army Commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar: We Must Expel The Turks; We Will Not Be Colonized Under Any Circumstances

Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the Commander of the Libyan National Army, said in an August 1, 2020 speech to a formation of LNA soldiers that aired on Libya Al-Hadath TV (LNA – Libya) that the Turkish troops in Libya, along with Syrian mercenaries that they brought with them, are "scum of the earth" that will die meaningless deaths. He said that Libya completely rejects colonialism, that its main goal is to expel these forces, and that throughout history, the Turks have only caused death, torment, and destruction of resources in Libya.

Khalifa Haftar: "These groups of runaways came to our country. When you meet them on the battlefield, you shall see that they are like mice. They are incapable of confronting you, because you are soldiers defending your country with everything you've got, while they are defending a fistful of dirhams, which sometimes they manage to collect while other times, [people] spit in their faces and they die a meaningless death, like a camel. I don't want to define those groups of people who came here from known places. They come from a dear country like Syria. People call them 'Syrians.' No. These are groups of mercenaries. These people have no country and no family, and they are only doing this to make a living. They are the scum of the earth. To them, one must add the Turks, who were present in Libya for more than 300 years. All the Libyans ever saw from them was evil, torment, killing, plunder, and the destruction of people's resources. They forced people to pay what they could not afford to pay. This is what they did. They killed and slaughtered. The Libyan people is the smallest in this entire region in Africa... In North Africa particularly. But we are lying in wait for them. We will not be ruled by anybody. We know what expelling them must be our main goal. We do not accept colonialism. We encountered it only once, under the Turks who, in addition, handed us over to the Italians. We will not accept to be colonized again, under any circumstances."