Turkey’s Erdogan says impossible to pull troops out of Iraq

The Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, received a telephone call from the President of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, on Tuesday, on the entry of Turkish troops to Iraq.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani visited Turkey on Wednesday as Ankara was embroiled in a crisis with Baghdad over the deployment of troops near an Islamic State group-held area in northern Iraq.

“Iraq does not need foreign ground forces and the Iraqi government is committed not to allow the presence of any ground force on Iraqi land”, the prime minister said in a statement.

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.

“For us, what is helpful is the bilateral discussion going on right now between Baghdad and Ankara, and it’s going extremely well”, he said, adding that Moscow had not consulted with Baghdad before raising the issue in the council.

He said that, since 2014, Ankara has been training peshmerga forces – the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government’s army – following a request from Mosul’s governor. While Baghdad says the deployment happened without its knowledge or approval, Ankara says it was a routine rotation of troops.

Hurriyet also reported that there is a PKK dimension to the Turkish reinforcement, as PKK has a military presence in the area and its presence is considered a major threat for Turkey.

Several MPs suggested Iraq could wage “economic war” on Turkey, but Jafaar Hussaini, a spokesman for one of the Shi’ite armed groups, Kata’ib Hezbollah, said violence was likely.

“It’s a lie. This statement has nothing to do with reality… the Turkish troops have entered Iraq as invaders without a request from Iraqi government and without its permission”, he said.

The other camps Turkey has in Iraq are inside the official borders of the autonomous Kurdish region. The move by NATO-member Turkey is not part of the US-led coalition’s activities. There are some 3,500 USA troops in Iraq to train and advise local forces. The document may be adopted at a meeting on December 18, which will be chaired by the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

A protest against Turkish intervention in Iraq has been scheduled in Baghdad for Saturday.