Iraq gives Turkish forces 48 hours to leave country
What is Turkey up to? Is it declaring war on the Shiite Government of Iraq? OR is it going to blow up Kurdish strongholds in Iraq that it deems a threat to Turkey? It's hard to say but attacking Kurdish strongholds might make sense given Turkish actions during the last 50 years or so towards the Kurds. However, they might find themselves going to war with not only Iraq but also their ally Iran if they are not careful or their other ally Russia the way this is all going now.
What is strange for the world about all this is Turkey is less worried about ISIS than it is the Kurds which the world finds very strange indeed.
Iraq
on Sunday gave Turkey 48 hours to withdraw forces it said had entered
the country illegally or face "all available options", including
recourse to the UN Security Council. Baghdad, which is struggling to
assert its sovereignty while receiving foreign assistance against the
Islamic State…
AFP
Iraq gives Turkish forces 48 hours to leave country
Baghdad (AFP) - Iraq on Sunday gave Turkey 48 hours to
withdraw forces it said had entered the country illegally or face "all
available options", including recourse to the UN Security Council.
Baghdad, which is struggling to assert its
sovereignty while receiving foreign assistance against the Islamic State
jihadist group, said Turkish forces with tanks and artillery entered
Iraq without its permission.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu said in a letter to his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi that
there would be no deployment of forces until Baghdad's concerns were
addressed.
However, the future of the forces already sent remained unclear.
"In
the absence of the withdrawal of these forces within 48 hours, Iraq has
the right to use all available options," including recourse to the
Security Council, a statement from Abadi's office said.
The Turkish forces entered "without the approval or knowledge of the Iraqi government," it said.
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi addresses the 70th Session of the United Nations General A …
In practical terms, Iraq's options are primarily diplomatic, as
its forces are tied down battling IS jihadists and Ankara has a far
more powerful military.
Turkey has troops at a base in the Bashiqa
area in Nineveh province to train Iraqi Sunni volunteers hoping to
retake the nearby city of Mosul from IS, which seized it and swathes of
other territory in June 2014.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu sent a letter to Abadi on Sunday to update him about "the
training programme we have been implementing in Bashiqa since last March
as well as tasks and activities of our forces there," a source in his
office said.
Davutoglu said in the letter that "there will be no
deployment of forces to Bashiqa until the sensitivities of the Iraqi
government are addressed," the source said.
A day earlier,
Davutoglu downplayed the deployment as "routine rotation activity"
associated with the training effort, and as "reinforcement against
security risks".
"This is not a new camp," Davutoglu said.
Rather,
it is a pre-existing "training facility established to support local
volunteer forces' fight against terrorism", set up in coordination with
the Iraqi defence ministry, he said.
But
Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, which has forces in the area, said
that Turkey had sent military experts and supplies to expand the base.
Iraqi
Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi also asked for the forces to be
withdrawn in a telephone call with his Turkish counterpart Ismet Yilmaz,
the ministry said on Sunday.
According
to the statement, Yilmaz said the forces were sent to protect Turkish
trainers, but Obeidi said they were more than the numbers required for
that task.
Baghdad's
relations with Turkey had improved recently but remained strained by
Ankara's relationship with Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region and
differences over the Syrian civil war.
Abadi
has repeatedly said Iraq needs all the help it can get to fight IS, but
he is also walking a fine line between receiving that support and
projecting sovereignty.
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