Libya’s eastern-based House endorsed a 2019 Turkey maritime memorandum and reversed earlier objections.
Why it matters: The vote creates a political basis for eastern Libyan authorities to support Turkey in future surveys, negotiations or drilling claims, but it does not itself establish new maritime rights or activity. It also renews disputes with Greece, Cyprus, the EU and Turkey’s other regional partners.
- The eastern-based House of Representatives voted unanimously on October 20, 2026.
- Turkey and Libya’s then-Tripoli-based Government of National Accord signed the memorandum on November 27, 2019.
- The House repealed 2020 decisions that rejected the memorandum and severed political relations with Ankara.
- Greece says the deal disregards Greek islands’ maritime rights; the EU says it cannot create legal consequences for third states.
Libya’s eastern-based House of Representatives unanimously endorsed the 2019 Turkey-Libya maritime memorandum on October 20, according to the Libyan News Agency. The House also repealed its 2020 decisions rejecting the memorandum and severing political relations with Ankara.
The action is best described as an internal political endorsement and an attempt to reverse the House’s earlier decisions, not as a newly negotiated maritime treaty. Turkey and Libya’s then-Tripoli-based Government of National Accord signed the memorandum in Istanbul on November 27, 2019, and registered it with the United Nations on December 11, 2019. The UN-registered text references two legal categories: the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone. It includes geographic coordinates and technical annexes.
The memorandum remained the underlying 2019 document; the eastern-based House had previously rejected it through its 2020 decisions. The new vote does not, on the materials available here, establish that the House has changed the memorandum’s international legal status or created new exploration rights. Its national effect is also contested because the original agreement was signed by a then-Tripoli-based government, while the vote came from Libya’s eastern-based legislature.
Turkey welcomed the vote, saying the memorandum protects the countries’ mutual rights and interests under international law and equity, in a foreign ministry statement. That position could give eastern Libyan authorities a political basis to support future negotiations or proposed surveys and drilling claims, but no new operation or maritime entitlement was announced.
Greece argues that Turkey and Libya lack “opposite or adjacent coasts” for the delimitation and that the memorandum disregards Greek islands’ maritime zones under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and customary international law, according to the Greek Foreign Ministry. The EU endorsed Greece’s position, saying the memorandum infringes third states’ sovereign rights and “cannot produce any legal consequences for third States,” according to High Representative Kaja Kallas.
By the numbers
- 2019 - Year Turkey and Libya signed the maritime memorandum
- November 27, 2019 - Date the memorandum was signed in Istanbul
- 2 - Maritime zones referenced: the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone
Yes, but: The vote may supply political backing for Turkey-Libya coordination, but it does not itself create new exploration activity, maritime rights or legal consequences for third states. Greece and the EU reject the memorandum’s legal effect, while the dossier does not independently resolve the competing claims.