DOI: 10.26650/annales.2026.1807027 ISSN: 2687-4113

Resolution of Libyan Claims Concerning Turkish Investors and Libyan Entities

Ali Yeşilırmak
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This article examines the unresolved mass investment claims between Turkish companies and Libyan entities, which emerged following the fall of the Gaddafi government in 2011. These disputes, involving billions of dollars for unpaid progress payments, lost equipment, and unreimbursed advances, have persisted despite the 2020 Turkey-Libya Memorandum of Understanding designed for their amicable resolution.The article identifies a confluence of major obstacles to settlement, including Libya's internal political division, a complex multi-tiered decision-making structure (involving entities, the Audit Bureau, and the Central Bank), and the transformation of contractual disputes into complex investment claims. The current non-binding, political approach is insufficient due to these structural and political hurdles.The article also surveys the nine known arbitrations brought by Turkish investors against Libya under the 2009 Turkey-Libya BIT and the related set-aside and enforcement decisions, and identifies the systemic problems that the treaty presents regarding its temporal scope, the attribution of the conduct of Libyan state entities, civil-war losses, costs, and enforcement.Consequently, the article proposes a shift towards a binding dispute resolution mechanism, modelled on the successful Iran-US Claims Tribunal, to effectively adjudicate the claims and facilitate a final settlement.

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