Baghdad calls for withdrawal of Turkish troops in northern Iraq

In Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi instructed his foreign ministry to lodge a formal complaint at the UN Security Council over the presence of the Turkish forces, asking it to order Turkey to withdraw its troops from Iraq immediately.

He said the additional soldiers are needed to protect the trainers from Islamic State terrorists, who he says are “running wild”.

On Dec. 11, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz would shortly pay a visit to Baghdad upon a consensus reached with Iraqi Foreign Minister İbrahim al-Jaafari. “It is the Turkish republic’s duty to ensure our troops’ security”, Mr Cavusoglu said during a live interview on NTV television.

The Iraqi ministry said in a statement the Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory without the knowledge of the central government in Baghdad, and that Iraq considered such presence “a hostile act”.

“Iraq has a Shia-led government and is backed by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Russia…Turkey and Saudi Arabia accuse this axis of attempting to control and promote sectarianism and aid Syrian president Bashar al-Assad”.

Crowds of young men in military fatigues chanted against Turkish “occupation”, vowing they would fight the Turkish troops themselves if they do not withdraw.

News of the deployment of 150 Turkish soldiers earlier this month triggered a crisis between Ankara and Baghdad, which has appealed to the united Nations Security Council to demand their immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Erdogan said Abadi “did not say a word until just now” because of developments in the region.

AP reported that Turkey has since stopped the deployment of more troops, but has not removed its forces from Iraq yet.

Turkey denies violating Iraq’s sovereignty, saying the troops sent last week to the Bashiqa camp, northeast of Mosul, would only assist forces fighting the Islamic State.

Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder Abadi has been under growing pressure to stand up to other nations involved in the ISIS war, particularly with previous USA deployments coming without any invitation from Iraqi officials. “(Their) withdrawal is out of the question”, Erdogan said.