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Ankara / AFP
Turkey insisted on Thursday that its troops will remain in Iraq despite Baghdad’s growing anger ahead of a planned operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from IS extremists.
Baghdad has accused Ankara of risking a regional war by keeping its forces inside Iraq, with the dispute complicating plans for the ambitious American-backed Mosul operation.
“No matter what the Iraqi government in Baghdad says, a Turkish presence will remain there to fight against IS, and to avoid any forceful change of the demographic composition in the region,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in televised comments.
Turkey has an estimated 2,000 troops in Iraq — around 500 of them in the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq training Iraqi fighters who hope to participate in the battle to recapture Mosul, according to Turkish media.
The Turkish parliament on Saturday extended a government mandate by one year, allowing its troops to remain on both Iraqi and Syrian soil.
Yildirim on Thursday said Baghdad’s reaction was not in “good faith”.
“It’s not the (Iraqi) government’s right to speak like that,” he said.
“When troops from 63 countries are present there, it is unreasonable (for the Iraqi government) to focus on Turkey’s presence.”
Iraq requests UN meet on Turkish troops
Iraq has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the presence of Turkish troops on its territory as a dispute with Ankara escalates.
“The Iraqi foreign ministry has presented a request for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss the Turkish violation of Iraq’s territory and interference in its internal affairs,” said a statement on the ministry’s website.
Most of the Turkish troops are at a base in Bashiqa, north of Mosul and close to Turkey’s border, where they are helping to train Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga and Sunni fighters.
Most of the Turkish troops are at a base in Bashiqa, north of Mosul and close to Turkey’s border, where they are helping to train Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga and Sunni fighters.
Tensions between Baghdad and Ankara have risen with expectations of an offensive by US-backed Iraqi forces to retake Mosul. Turkey has said the campaign will send a wave of refugees over its border, and potentially on to Europe. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim echoed this worry again on Thursday, saying the presence of Ankara’s troops in Bashiqa will continue to ensure that the demographics of the region will not change. Iraq’s hostile reaction is “incomprehensible”, he added.