The Office of the Public Prosecutor in Tripoli assigned a force affiliated to the Ministry of Interior to protect the Archives and Historical Studies Center (the National Archives), in response to a decision by the Endowments Authority of the Government of National Accord, in which it authorized the center to vacate the building within 3 days.
The headquarters, which UNESCO has classified among the human heritage institutions in Libya, contains no less than 27 million historical and manuscript documents related to the history of Libya, the period of resistance against the Turkish and Italian occupations, the lineage of the Libyans, and the land and sea borders of the country, in addition to maps, photographs, and audio and video recordings of historical testimonies. Books and periodicals.
The National Human Rights Committee in Libya expressed its concern about the decision of the Endowment Authority of the Government of National Accord to vacate the headquarters of the National Center for Archives and Historical Studies, and said, "The reasons and motives behind the decision are suspicious," noting that what raises its concern is that the center's building has been transferred to custody. The Endowments and Islamic Affairs Authority of the Al-Wefaq government, whose officials seek to vacate the building for economic use.
In a statement, the committee indicated that the center, like other similar centers in the countries of the world that are the archives of societies and the evidence for their existence, contains a huge amount of the history of Libyans during the period of struggle against colonialism, oral heritage and rare historical books that have benefited Libyan and foreign researchers, pointing out that The unscientific and ill-considered procedure issued by the Endowments Authority threatens an important and fundamental part of Libya's identity and history through the enormous archive present in this center.
The permanent representative of Libya to UNESCO, Hafez al-Walidah, warned of the danger of asking the Endowment Authority to hand over the headquarters of the National Center for Archives and Historical Studies or to seize it administratively. In order not to lead to damage and loss of documents and manuscripts, loss of archiving and dispersal.
Al-Walda added that the Archives Center has become a functional information bank that provides services within the framework of cultural and economic viability.
While observers attribute what is happening to the center to the state of political, administrative and security chaos in the west of the country, informed sources in Tripoli suggested that behind the decision of the Endowment Authority a Turkish attempt to control the history and heritage of Libyans, and the enormous wealth of manuscripts and documents, especially related to the period of the Ottoman occupation of the country between 1551 And 1911.
The Endowments Authority had offered the Turkish side to invest in endowments under its control in the west of the country, and the head of the organization, Muhammad al-Abani, had previously discussed in December 2018 with the private secretary of the Turkish embassy and the coordinator of the Turkish Cooperation Agency "TIKA", ways of cooperation in investing the endowment and the possibility of preparing an electronic archive for an inventory. Libyan endowments inside and outside.
The media office of the authority said at the time that "the meeting focused on the possibility of joint cooperation between the General Authority of Endowments and Islamic Affairs and the Turkish Republic in the field of endowments and endowments in Libya."
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency is considered an intelligence arm of the regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and it moves under the cover of charitable and humanitarian work and cultural cooperation.
The sources pointed out that the Endowment Authority is pressuring the reconciliation government to form a new administration for the center, which represents the National Archives of Libya, that is ready to conclude an agreement with TIKA and enable it to control its documents, under the name of reorganization, archiving and digitization.
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