Baghdad, December 11, 2015 (AFP) – The highest Shiite authority in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Friday condemned the deployment of Turkish troops in the north of the country without the Baghdad agreement, which poisons a folder from a week relations between the two states.
No country should “send his soldiers on the territory of another State under the pretext of help against terrorism without reaching an agreement (…) between the governments of both countries”, said, on behalf of Ayatollah Sistani, one of his representatives during Friday prayers. Turkey has made it a week ago several hundred soldiers and tanks to a camp in Bachiqa, near Mosul city controlled since June 2014 by the Islamic State Group (EI).
Turkish military will train for several months of the troops of the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan (peshmerga) and Iraqi volunteers eager to fight the IE. Baghdad has demanded the withdrawal of these new troops and now seeks a condemnation from the United Nations Security Council but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that withdrawal was “out of question”.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu defended this deployment as “an act of solidarity,” adding: “When the threats (of training camp) increase, we send troops to protect the camp.” “What they (the Turkish troops) are to Bachiqa and this camp is just training,” assured Erdogan Thursday evening news conference. “The number of our troops will be increased or reduced depending on the number of peshmerga + + they cause.”
Senior Iraqi officials reiterated their request for withdrawal Thursday during talks with a Turkish delegation, according to official statements. On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has promised to “address the concerns of the Baghdad government” on this issue.
Erdogan for his part stated that the subject would be the subject of a meeting on December 21 between Turkey, the US and the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ara © armenews.com