Thousands of Iraqis in Baghdad, Basra protest Turkish deployment in north

The crisis between the two countries sparked last Friday when reports said a Turkish training battalion equipped with armored vehicles was deployed near the city of Mosul to train Iraqi paramilitary groups in fighting the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militant group.

Tens of thousands of supporters and Shiite militiamen rallied on Saturday and demanded that Turkish troops promptly pull away from a display of strength by the nation ‘s strong militia groups, Iraqi land as well as the Shiite political opponents of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

In a stamen today, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry’s Spokesman said that his county reserves its legitimate right to take all necessary measures to put an end to the Turkish violations which prejudice relations of good neighbourliness, and endanger global security and peace. “We support the processes, but we think the people will be heard in such important events”, he said.

Erdogan said that Turkish forces withdrawal from Iraq is “out of question” and denounced the Iraqi appeal to the UNSC as “not honest”.

Turkish military personnel are helping to train local Iraqi volunteers and Kurdish peshmerga who are preparing for a long-anticipated offensive to retake Mosul, a major northern city seized by the Islamic state over a year ago.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and National Intelligence Agency (MIT) head Hakan Fidan visited Baghdad on Thursday for talks with Abadi on the issue.

Some protesters trampled on or burned Turkish flags while denouncing Turkish “occupation”, while others held up banners calling for violence against Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“We call on the Security Council to demand that Turkey withdraw its forces immediately… and not to violate Iraqi sovereignty again”, Iraqi Ambassador to the UN Mohamed Ali al-Hakim said in a letter to US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who is president of the council this month.

Consequently the Grand Ayatollah called upon Baghdad to “protect the sovereignty of Iraq.

There are no any other military forces from any other country except Turkey on Iraqi soil”.

He went on to say that Russian Federation and Iran were behind the Iraqi complaints.