Anti-ISIS Efforts: Turkey Defends Decision To Deploy Troops To Mosul, Iraq

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that he has no plans for pulling out troops in north Iraq.

The foreign ministry said Turkey had stopped the deployment two days ago due to the “sensitivities” of the Iraqi authorities and that Ankara would do nothing to call into question the sovereignty of Iraq, describing it as a “friend and brother”.

Turkey maintains it sent the troops to a Kurdish controlled area with Baghdad’s full knowledge as part of efforts to fight ISIL militants.

Iraq gave Turkey 48 hours to remove the forces, which Ankara has defended as necessary to protect trainers at a base in northern Iraq, but the deadline passed earlier this week without their withdrawal.

A Turkish military presence in northern Iraq is part of “planned training”, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Wednesday.

A group using the same name previously claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 18 Turkish workers in Iraq.

“We were asked by Prime Minister Abadi to help train soldiers and, at his request, we set up a training camp in Bashiqa in 2014”, Erdoğan was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgic announced: “We’ll solve this problem and increase coordination to the highest possible level”.

This brings the total number of Turkish troops stationed in Mosul up to 1,200, according to the Daily Sabah. As Iraq struggles to push out ISIS, it has been caught in a tug of war between Iran, which exerts great influence over the Shiite-led government and provides crucial support to its ground forces, and the U.S.-led coalition, which is providing vital air support. Barzani’s first stop in Ankara was at the headquarters of the Turkish intelligence agency, MIT, where he will meet with MİT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan before meeting with Erdogan and Davutoglu.

Turkey, whose government strongly rejects the idea of a Kurdish state made out of now Turkish land, has returned the favor by boosting Erbil’s trade, in particular buying Kurdish oil.

Iraq has urged United Nations Security Council permanent members and “friendly nations” to mobilize support for a resolution to condemn Turkey’s troop deployment in northern Iraq, which it said violated Iraq’s sovereignty.

“We believe that Turkey has acted recklessly and inexplicably, carrying out additional deployments on the territory of Iraq without the consent of the Iraqi government”. The government of Erbil has always been friendly with Ankara, despite the Turkish government’s military and police campaign against Kurds in Turkey and nearby Syria.

He said Baghdad’s strong reaction was mostly related to intra-governmental disputes, while Abadi also wanted to emphasize his opposition to foreign troops in Iraq.