Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has issued an order for his country’s air force to be on alert as a deadline to Turkey to pull out its troops from the Arab country approaches. “The recent phone call between the Turkish and Iraqi defense ministers was a positive and constructive step forward”, McGurk said.
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The deployment “is considered a serious violation of Iraqi sovereignty”, the statement said.
On Saturday, Iraq’s government demanded that Turkey immediately withdraw additional military personnel deployed to train Iraqi Kurdish fighters near the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul.
Video released on the website of Turkey’s pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper showed flatbed trucks carrying armoured vehicles along a road at night, describing them as a convoy accompanying the Turkish soldiers to Bashiqa, north of Mosul.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu sent a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi late Sunday, promising not to “deploy more troops to Bashika until your concerns about the matter are eased”.
“Tomorrow, the period of 48 hours will end, and if there would be no withdrawal, all the options will be opened, or we will resort to the worldwide organizations”, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said at a joint press conference with his German counterpart Frank Walter Steinmeier – who was in Baghdad for an official visit.
Turkey has stopped the transfer of troops near the Iraqi city of Mosul after Baghdad threatened to appeal to the UN Security Council over the deployment of Ankara’s forces.
A senior officer from the Kurdish forces in the region – which are allied to Ankara – downplayed the deployment as a routine training rotation but a Turkish paper said it was part of deal to set up a permanent base.
“It is our duty to provide security for our soldiers providing training there”, Çavuşoğlu said. Turkey says the troops were there as part of a training program for local militia battling militant groups.
Powerful Iraqi Shi’ite Muslim armed groups have pledged to fight a planned deployment of USA forces to the country.
Turkey has close relations with the Kurdish autonomous zone of northern Iraq, though it views Syrian Kurdish groups across the border as hostile to its interests. The U.S.-led coalition has been staging airstrikes against Daesh targets in Iraq and Syria since mid-September 2014.
According to US officials, this deployment is part of an agreement between Turkey and Iraq and does not involve the USA or the coalition.
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The fresh Turkish troops arrived in Mosul, Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) spokesperson Sefin Dizayi confirmed in a statement.
