The protesters in Baghdad said the deployment is a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, asking the government to pressure Ankara for the withdrawal of the forces.
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“I reassured [Alhakim] that that was America’s very strong position and urged that the dialogue continue between the Iraqi and Turkish governments to find an amicable way out of this hard situation”, she said.
The demonstration Saturday, called for by the umbrella group of Shiite militias in Iraq whose power rivals that of the Iraqi army, was attended by militia leaders and some Shiite politicians.
Tensions between the two countries have increased dramatically since Turkey deployed about 150 soldiers backed by artillery and around 25 tanks to a base near the ISIS-controlled northern Iraqi city of Mosul on December 4.
Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand. “We have no such luxury”, Erdoğan said.
“The Iraqi minister informed him of the developments around the unlawful introduction of Turkish troops in northern Iraq and Bagdad’s complaint to the UN Security Council over his issue”.
Meanwhile, the Turkish prime minister’s office said in a statement on Friday that Ankara has decided in talks with Iraqi officials to “reorganize” its military personnel at the Bashiqa camp near Mosul.
Iraq has already tried to solve the crisis with “peaceful and diplomatic means”, Abadi said in the televised address.
Ankara has refused, saying the troops were part of an worldwide mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight IS militant group, which still controls a large part of the country.
The country’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for the removal of Turkey’s soldiers from Iraq, saying that foreign forces were not needed to fight the Islamic State in the country.
He added that in a telephone conversation he had asked al-Jaafari whether the Iraqi government could provide security for Turkish troops in Mosul, to which his Iraqi counterpart said they were not able to provide forces.
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One diplomat on the 15-nation Security Council said on condition of anonymity that there were no immediate plans to convene a special meeting during the weekend in response to the Iraqi letter. It was also a chance to show that Abadi and his allies “cannot match their powerful reaction to the Turkish intervention”.
