Bilal Erdoğan, son of Turkey’s president, began a three-day visit to Lebanon on Thursday. Officially it is a cultural and economic trip, but it is widely seen as part of Ankara’s push to expand its regional influence.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Bilal Erdoğan © ANI/Lebanon
Bilal Erdoğan, son of Turkey’s president, began a three-day visit to Lebanon on Thursday. Officially it is a cultural and economic trip, but it is widely seen as part of Ankara’s push to expand its regional influence.
He was received at the Baabda presidential palace by President Joseph Aoun, who said Lebanon wanted Lebanese-Turkish ties to enter “a new phase of cooperation and partnership” in investment, reconstruction, trade, tourism and infrastructure.
Bilal Erdoğan expressed Turkey’s support for Lebanese efforts to extend state sovereignty across the whole country “through its own armed forces,” an implicit reference to Hezbollah’s weapons.
His itinerary takes him to Beirut, Tripoli and Akkar, three major strongholds of Lebanon’s Sunni community.
He is due to meet the country’s top leaders to discuss development projects and to convey Ankara’s opposition to any Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.
He is also scheduled to see Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, religious figures and Bahia Hariri, vice president of the Future Movement and aunt of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who withdrew from politics in 2022.
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Bilal Erdoğan holds no official post in Ankara. Yet the visit comes as Turkey seeks to extend its reach across the region. Already a key player in Syria and Iraq, Ankara may now be looking to strengthen its political foothold in Lebanon, and among its Sunnis, at a time when the community has lacked strong leadership since Hariri’s exit.
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