Lavrov expresses to Iraqi counterpart support for suvereignty of Iraq

AP reported that Turkey has since stopped the deployment of more troops, but has not removed its forces from Iraq yet. Crowds of young men in military fatigues chanted against Turkish “occupation”, vowing they would fight the Turkish troops themselves if they do not withdraw.

The rallies were organized and led by Shi’ite militia groups, which have threatened to use force against Turkey unless it withdraws.

News of the deployment of Turkish soldiers to a base near Mosul last week has triggered a crisis between Ankara and Baghdad, which demands their immediate withdrawal. Iraqs United Nations ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim subsequently told reporters that Baghdad and Ankara “are solving it bilaterally”.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry today was instructed to lodge a formal complaint against Turkey to the UN Security Council, citing a solid week since Turkish ground troops arrived in the Nineveh Province, and continue to refuse to leave.

On Friday evening, people converged on Tahrir (Liberation) Square in central Baghdad to condemn in the strongest terms the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq, calling Ankara’s move “a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari have spoken by telephone at the latter’s request, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said. “Erdogan asked rhetorically before adding”, We have no such luxury”.

Iraq on Friday sent a letter to the presidency of the UN Security Council demanding that Turkey withdraw its troops from northern Iraq.

In the Iraq’s south-eastern city of Nasiriyah demonstrators called on the country’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and the Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi to take a “firm stance” against Turkey’s “aggression”, Press TV reports.

In Ankara, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office said in a statement that Turkey had decided in talks with Iraqi officials to “reorganize” its military personnel at the Bashiqa camp.

“This is considered a flagrant violation of the principles of the UN Charter, and a violation of Iraqi territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state of Iraq”, the letter said, according to an unofficial translation of the Arabic original.

Turkey has had troops near Mosul since previous year but the arrival of additional troops last week sparked an uproar in Baghdad. It was also a chance to show that Abadi and his allies “cannot match their powerful reaction to the Turkish intervention”.