Turkey, Italy try to evacuate citizens from Libya

ANKARA, Turkey — Three Turkish ships were en route for Benghazi on Tuesday seeking to evacuate about 3,000 Turkish citizens from the Libyan city hit hardest by deadly protests, the foreign minister said.

Two civilian ferries and one military ship were expected to arrive in Benghazi on Tuesday afternoon, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference.

"More than 1,000 Turkish citizens have been airlifted so far (from Libya)," Davutoglu said. "There are 4,857 Turkish citizens in and around Benghazi and the ships will evacuate about 3,000 of them."

The foreign ministry said Turkey had to send ships to Benghazi after it faced problems in obtaining flight permissions to land at Benghazi airport. It said thousands of Turks have gathered at a stadium in Benghazi.

Davutoglu said Turkey was also planning to send ships to Tripoli to evacuate its citizens stranded there. He said there are 25,000 Turkish citizens living and working in Libya but it may not be necessary to evacuate them all.

More than 200 Turkish companies are involved in construction projects worth more than $15 billion in Libya, State Minister Zafer Caglayan, who oversees foreign trade, said Monday. Some of the construction sites reportedly came under attack by protesters but no Turkish citizens has been harmed so far, authorities said.

Davutoglu said 10 other countries have also asked for help from Turkey to evacuate their citizens. He did not identify the countries. He said Turkey was also evaluating options to evacuate its citizens through Tunisia or Egypt.

The Anatolia news agency said two more ships would set sail Tuesday and Wednesday.

Italy was also sending an air force transport aircraft to Benghazi to evacuate roughly 100 Italian citizens from there. Italy's state radio said Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa made the announcement to reporters in Abu Dhabi, where he is on an official visit.

Italy, with large energy interests in Libya, has some 1,500 citizens living or working in the country. Some citizens have been leaving in recent days aboard regularly scheduled commercial flights from Tripoli.

The Dutch foreign ministry said a military plane was waiting at a military airport in the southern city of Eindhoven for permission to land in Tripoli to pick up more than 100 Dutch citizens seeking to leave Libya.

"Our people need to get back as quickly as possible," Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said. "We are doing all we can to get landing permission."

Russian Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said in televised comments that an Il-76 plane is to take off for Tripoli on Tuesday to collect 134 Russians who are "ready for evacuation."

A total of 563 people are to be evacuated eventually on four planes, she said. Most are employees of state companies Russian Railways and Gazprom, plus their families. She said authorities are in negotiations with diplomats in Libya to open its airspace for the Russian planes to land.

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