Turkey says not considering withdrawing troops from Iraq

“This is a flagrant violation of the provisions and principles of the U.N. Charter and in violation of the sanctity of Iraqi territory”, a statement from his office said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq in a national address Friday night, insisting no foreign forces are needed to fight the Islamic State group in his country. The demonstrators also reportedly burned the Turkish flag during the rally.

However, President Erdoğan again vowed on December 11 that Turkey would not withdraw troops, despite strong objections from Baghdad.

“Iraq worked on containment of this issue by diplomatic means and bilateral talks, but these efforts did not succeed in convincing Turkey to withdraw its occupying forces from Iraqi territory”, al-Hakim wrote to Power. He added that Turkey is “determined” to continue the training program.

“Turkish troops in Mosul are not there as combatants; they are trainers”.

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

Ankara claims that its troops have been deployed in northern Iraq to train Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, and that the move was in line with previous agreements with the Baghdad government.

Separately, Iraqi officials say a suicide vehicle bomb targeting a border security post in the western Al Anbar Governorate has killed five and wounded 10.

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

Iraq on Friday circulated a letter among the members of the UN Security Council to express “growing alarm” that the problem was not being resolved.

He also said that Iraq demanded an Arab League extraordinary session to “discuss the consequences of the Turkish breach (to Iraqi sovereignty) and adopt an Arab stance against it”. “After these demands, we set up the Bashiqa camp”.

We of course have suggested that one explanation for Turkeys deployment is that Erdogan is keen on having an expanded military presence in northern Iraq now that some rather inconvenient questions are being asked about his familys role in facilitating the flow of illicit ISIS crude from oil fields in Iraq and Syria to Ceyhan.