Are we in the midst of a 5th-generation war?

There is no point in beating around the bush.

We are, in the literal sense of the word, in the midst of a 5th-generation war.

Let us turn the pages slowly to better understand and make sense of what is happening.

When we look at the events of the past month one by one, it seems as if there is a "chain of unfortunate events" taking place.

And that is exactly the point—that someone is pushing us to "think exactly this way"!

If we look at the textbook definition, 5th-generation warfare is built on presenting events as singular and giving the impression that they are isolated. For those who do not understand the big picture, everything is marketed as an "accident," a "coincidence," or an "unsolved case."

Of course, it depends on who believes it or what conclusions they draw!

In recent days, too many "extraordinary" incidents have occurred in succession to be dismissed as mere coincidence.

First, a Turkish Air Force cargo plane crashed in Georgia. Twenty of our soldiers were martyred. The technical aspect of the incident was discussed, and the file was closed.

Then, our merchant ships in the Black Sea were targeted.

We still do not know who did it or why.

Then, drones appeared, with no explanation as to where they came from or which center was controlling them. One was shot down by an F-16 near Ankara, while others crashed or were shot down along the Izmit and Balıkesir-Manyas line.

We were just questioning the meaning of these developments when news arrived that a private plane traveling from Ankara to Libya had crashed shortly after taking off from Esenboğa Airport.

There were no ordinary people on that plane.

Libyan Chief of General Staff Mohamed al-Haddad, Ground Forces Commander Lieutenant General Futuri Gribel, Military Industry Corporation Chairman Brigadier General Mahmoud al-Katawi, al-Haddad's advisor Mohamed al-Asavi Diab, and Ministry of Defense photographer Mohamed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub...

All of them lost their lives.

These individuals had come to Ankara at the invitation of Chief of General Staff Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu and were returning to their homeland after completing their contacts with Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler and high-level military officials.

They never reached Libya.

We need to stop and think here.

Mohamed al-Haddad was a figure considered "close" to Turkey. He was at the head of the military wing of the legitimate, Tripoli-based government.

Let us recall: When the forces of Khalifa Haftar were at the gates of Tripoli during the 2019–2020 period, what kept this government standing was Turkey's military and political support. A significant portion of the military training, consulting, UCAV, air defense systems, and security cooperation agreements made during that process were implemented directly through al-Haddad's initiative.

Al-Haddad was not an ideological "Turkey lover"; but he was pragmatic. He was a soldier who said, "I will walk with whoever makes the survival of Tripoli possible."

This automatically placed him in a position close to the Turkey-Qatar axis.

He was openly opposed to the Haftar-Egypt-UAE-France axis. Moreover, he supported Ankara's thesis on maritime jurisdiction areas against the attempts of the Israel-Greece-Greek Cypriot Administration (GCA) triangle to encircle Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean.

In short; he was a critical balancing element for both Turkey's presence in Libya and its strategic interests in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Now let us pause, take a breath, and ask this question:

Is it an ordinary event for such a figure to lose his life in a plane crash of unexplained cause immediately after a visit to Ankara?

We must look at this without clinging to conspiracy theories, but also without falling into naivety.

Let us put on our reading glasses.

Perhaps we are not fully aware, but a 5th-generation war, which we have been a part of for years, is ongoing.

This war has no tanks, artillery, or front lines as we know them. It is hybrid, covert, deniable, and multi-layered.

If we take a brief look at our immediate surroundings; on one side, there is the Ukraine-Russia War to the north of Turkey. The US and the UK are calculating to squeeze Moscow via the Black Sea using NATO.

Turkey is under pressure at every step, from the Montreux Convention to the S-400s.

On the other side, there is Israel.

It is playing the Kurdish card in Syria in a highly systematic manner. The ultimate goal of the strategic relationship it has established with the PKK, PYD, and YPG is the encirclement of Turkey from the south. The alliance established with the GCA and Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean aims to squeeze Turkey from the sea.

Energy pipelines, natural gas fields, and maritime jurisdiction areas are at the center of this game.

To this, Libya is added.

Turkey's military presence in Libya directly challenges the Africa policy of Egypt, the UAE, and France. Every position Ankara holds in Tripoli creates discomfort in Paris, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.

It is as if Turkey is in the middle of a geopolitical storm.

Unfortunately, we were caught in this not with a strong strategic mind, but with a foreign policy understanding focused on saving the day and fortifying domestic politics.

Tayyip Erdoğan uses foreign policy more as an apparatus to maintain his power than for the supreme interests of the country.

The result is clear; an increasingly isolated Turkey.

The real player here is Israel!

Netanyahu, with Trump behind him, has expanded Israel's regional maneuvering space as much as he could.

Although Trump says he "loves" Erdoğan very much, when it comes to Israel, he chooses Netanyahu without hesitation.

To put it in the language of my fellow citizens; no good will come from Trump in these matters, and he wouldn't lift a finger anyway!

In such a picture, Libya standing by Turkey—despite Israel, Greece, and the GCA—and deepening military cooperation with Ankara is of vital importance.

One does not need to be a diplomatic genius to understand this.

That is why the issue is not just a crashed plane. The issue is what the successive "coincidences" are trying to tell us.

Of course, the links in the chain are also connected to each other.

Israel shelved its classic war doctrines years ago. It no longer acts with tanks; but with intelligence, cyberattacks, airspace violations, proxy actors, and "deniable operations."

We are talking about a country that literally wrote the book on 5th-generation warfare here.

So why did Israel choose to enter into a confrontation with Turkey?

The answer is simple. Turkey is the only actor disrupting the geopolitical circle Israel is trying to establish along the Eastern Mediterranean–Syria–Libya line.

Israel has been trying to expand the energy alliance it established in the Eastern Mediterranean with Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration for years. But there is an obstacle in front of it: the maritime jurisdiction agreement Turkey signed with Libya.

This is where the trouble starts!

This agreement has the potential to completely neutralize Israel's strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean.

That is why Libya is not an ordinary African country for Israel. As long as there is a military and political structure close to Turkey in Tripoli, Tel Aviv's plan to encircle Turkey from the sea will remain incomplete. It must be underlined.

At this point, the importance of al-Haddad emerges.

Al-Haddad was Turkey's military interlocutor in Tripoli. Many critical collaborations, from UCAVs to air defense systems, were institutionalized during his tenure.

More importantly, Libya's support for Turkey's thesis on maritime jurisdiction areas was sustained thanks to al-Haddad's balance policy.

In other words, he was in the position of an "obstructive actor" from Israel's perspective.

Now let us ask:

Is the crash of a plane carrying the Libyan Chief of General Staff and the head of the military industry, immediately after a visit to Ankara, just a technical accident?

Of course, we cannot speak with certainty. But if we look at Israel's past, we can easily say this:

Tel Aviv does not target any actor it sees as a threat with "direct war." It first weakens, isolates, and neutralizes them.

Most of the time, it leaves only "question marks" behind.

Today, Israel uses the PKK/PYD/YPG line in Syria as a pressure element against Turkey. The relationships of these structures with Israeli intelligence are no longer even secret. The goal is to keep Turkey busy from the south, dissipate its energy, and leave it alone in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The same Israel is squeezing Turkey from the sea via Greece and the GCA, from the land via Syria and Iraq, and in the diplomatic arena via the US.

This is not a coincidence; it is an openly coordinated encirclement strategy...

Turkey, on the other hand, is still trying to read these with a "classic threat perception." Yet, we are facing a war without uniforms, without flags, and without a front line.

Israel is a master in this field; the government in Turkey is only calculating how to save the day.

Moreover, Tayyip Erdoğan's years of turning foreign policy into an apparatus of domestic politics have pushed Turkey into strategic loneliness; while the Netanyahu-Trump axis is strengthening, Ankara has been unable to go beyond producing rhetoric.

As a result, the issue is not just crashed planes, but the fact that one of the most cold-blooded and disciplined architects of this circle, namely Israel, stands before us as an adversary, and with that, let us put a period to our article.