Turkey: Withdrawal Of Troops From Iraq ‘Out Of Question’

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani was meeting Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday, as Ankara was locked in a diplomatic stand-off with Baghdad over the deployment of troops in northern Iraq.

In an interview, Erdogan also said that Iraq and Iran’s Shia governments pursue sectarian policies both in Syria and Iraq.

Officials in Ankara have resisted the call for withdrawal, claiming the deployment was in line with previous agreements with Baghdad to train Kurdish and other paramilitary forces in the fight against Daesh. Russia and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation have deployed more warplanes and warships since Turkish aircraft shot down a Russian fighter jet last month.

Davutoglu said he wanted to visit Baghdad as soon as possible to calm the row, saying the troops were meant to protect the training mission against attack by Islamic State.

Selcen, who served in the Turkish embassy in Baghdad from 2003 to 2006, said the environment in certain parts of Iraq is not friendly to Turkey.

“We want the secretariat to tell us what is happening in the region”, said Peter Iliichev, Russia’s representative to the UN Security Council.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wrote a letter to his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi to inform him of the activities and the duties of Turkish troops deployed in Mosul. “We have not yet escalated it to the Security Council or to the United Nations”.

“The scope of our travel warning to Iraq has expanded to include all provinces except for Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah”, all of which are in the northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

The camp, where 2,441 people have been trained so far, was set up by Turkish forces at the Mosul governor’s request, and in coordination with the Iraqi Defense Ministry. But analysts and officials warn the moves are only weakening Abadi, the man whose government President Obama cited as a key factor in his decision to step up the US-led campaign of airstrikes against IS in September 2014. Turkey’s ambassador to Iraq was also summoned to the parliament on Thursday, he added.

“It will be a vast, overwhelming resolution on fighting terrorism, which will build up greatly the potential of the Security Council in fighting the terrorist threat”, the diplomat said.