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Iraqi army kills more than 300 IS militants, liberates 31 Tal Afar districts

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The Iraqi army has killed over 300 militants of the Daesh militant group (banned in Russia) and liberated 31 districts of the city of Tal Afar, Iraqi army spokesman Yahya Rasul said Thursday, August 22, according to Sputnik.

“A total of 302 militants were killed, 31 districts of Tal Afar were liberated,” Rasul told a joint press conference with spokesman for the US-led coalition US Army Col. Ryan Dillon.

According to Rasul, there are no more than 2,000 Daesh militants in Tal Afar, who are mostly foreign fighters.

“The militants in the city have no choice but to surrender or die,” Rasul stressed, adding that no specific date was set for the end of the operation to liberate Tal Afar, which, however, will not be last long.

Dillon, on his part, noted that all coalition’s bases were temporary until the end of fight against terrorists in Iraq.

On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced the beginning of the military offensive aimed at retaking Tal Afar, which is located 30 miles away from recently liberated Mosul. Tal Afar is the last major stronghold of the Daesh militants on the border of Iraq with Syria.

Iraq says interested in exporting Armenia’s IT solutions

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A delegation of Iraq‘s Ministry of Communications met with the members of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE) during a visit to Armenia on Thursday, August 17 to discuss recent developments in the sector of information technologies and communication.

At the summit, the UITE briefed the Iraqis about the development of the Armenian IT sector, as well as the programs implemented by the Union.

Learning more about the achievements of Armenian ICT sector, the Iraqi experts expressed interest in collaboration in R&D, educational programs, security and e-governance, as well as the export of Armenian IT solutions and investment opportunities.

As part of its mission to assist Armenian IT companies to enter the international market, the UITE recently held a meeting with the ambassador to Iran Artashes Tumanyan .

Not all Kurds on board with Kurdish independence vote

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Protesters, most of them school teachers, demonstrate against the Kurdistan Regional Government for delays in paying their salaries, Sulaimaniyah province, Iraqi Kurdistan, Sept. 27, 2016. (photo by REUTERS/Ako Rasheed)

By Fazel Hawramy

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — The majority of Kurdish parties agreed on June 7 to hold a referendum for independence in September. While outside pressure to stop the controversial referendum has been constant, the deadliest blow might, however, come from within. Ordinary Kurds, in particular those in Sulaimaniyah, are angry about the government’s mismanagement of the economy, and many appear ready to express their dissatisfaction in their approach to the referendum.

Over the last two months, Al-Monitor has spoken with several dozen people, primarily in Sulaimaniyah, to gauge their views on the upcoming referendum. Those interviewed include police officers, teachers, peshmerga, shopkeepers, taxi drivers and civil servants, the overwhelming majority of whom reject the referendum outright. They consider it a ploy by the current leadership to distract attention from its failure to efficiently run the government and manage the economy for the last 25 years, since the establishment of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 1992.

Sulaimaniyah, nestled between several mountain ranges, is the largest province in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the other two being Dahuk and Erbil. Sulaimaniyah is home to around 2 million of the region’s total indigenous population of 5.2 million people. The anger and frustration among them is palpable.

“Why should I vote yes in the referendum?” Shaho Mahyaddin, a father of two, asked rhetorically. “After 17 years of being a traffic police officer, what do I have? No electricity. No water. I have no house or investment. I have nothing. The only thing I had was my salary [$980 a month], but over the last two years, they have cut it by more than 30%. How can I feed two children on that amount?”

Reeling from low oil prices, the KRG last year resorted to cutting the salaries of public sector employees — a bloated 1.4 million-person workforce — by up to 65% to counter the economic meltdown. The move had serious adverse effects for the economy, including a decline in purchasing power. Traders in the bazaar, already hit hard by the economic crisis, are now also worried about the possible impact of the upcoming referendum.

“People are buying only essential goods, such as flour and rice, because they are worried about the day after the referendum,” said Dashtawan, an assistant in a shop selling kitchen wares. “This July was the worst month in terms of trading in the bazaar for me, even worse than when Daesh attacked,” referring to the Islamic State offensive in summer 2014. Dashtawan said that with only few exceptions, the majority of the people he knows in the bazaar are angry about the economy and are very likely to vote no at the polls.

“We have had this business since 1953, but it has never been this bad,” said Najat, who has worked in his father’s tea house in Sulaimaniyah’s main bazaar since he was 15. Najat said his business has been in decline for the last three years, since Baghdad and Erbil began having serious disputes.

“I used to sell about 400 teas per day, but now it is around 120,” said Najat, as he poured tea for the only customer in the little tea house. “Despite this, I will vote yes in the referendum, because this is a once in a lifetime chance, and we should not miss it.”

Many civil servants have spent their savings since early 2014, when Baghdad refused to disburse Kurdistan’s share of funding in the national budget, and salaries were cut. With no social security net, many residents are anxious about the negative impact of the referendum. Teachers are one group that has been particularly hit by the financial crisis, with cuts to their salaries of almost 70%.

“I will go to the polls, and I will mark a resolute no,” said Nesar, a primary school teacher from Halabja who has taught for 18 years. “The government has slashed my salary of $900 by 65%.” When Al-Monitor asked whether he would vote yes if the government reinstated his salary, he responded, “No, because I have no trust whatsoever in the current leadership.”

It is ironic that under the British and other regimes in Iraq, the people of Sulaimaniyah have always been rebellious, including at the forefront of the independence movements, but 25 years of Kurdish rule have turned them against a referendum for independence. During parliamentary elections in September 1930, the Kurds of Sulaimaniyah called on the British government, which held the League of Nations mandate over Iraq, to allow them to create an independent state as a British protectorate so they would not be at the mercy of an Arab king in Baghdad.

When the Sulaimaniyah Kurds realized the futility of their effort, anger grew toward the British and what the Kurds saw as their betrayal. Rejecting Baghdad Arab rule, they poured into the streets while most of the rest of Kurdistan remained silent. By the end of election day, 14 residents were dead and many more wounded, killed or injured at the hands of British and Iraqi forces.

In the second half of the 20th century, the people of Sulaimaniyah rebelled several more times. Ordinary Kurds were only too happy to name their children after a famous peshmerga commander or a battle that the peshmerga won against the Iraqi army. They have supported the peshmerga with whatever they could, but many are now scratching their heads and looking for answers to what went wrong. These days it is difficult to mention the name of a certain former peshmerga commander turned politician and not elicit a curse from the average Kurd. The people today despise or have no patience for their Kurdish rulers.

“The main problem is the trust between the public and the political elite,” said Abdulbaset Ismail, who fought for four years as a peshmerga commander against the Iraqi army in the 1980s. “We fought to free the Kurds from the yoke of the Iraqi state, but I never thought we would create this mess.”

Ismail, whose nom de guerre in the mountain was Halo Soor, is driving a taxi these days in Erbil and has difficulty making ends meet. He had commanded a unit of 26 peshmerga in the mountains, 24 of whom lost their life fighting the Iraqi army in the pursuit of Kurdish independence.

“Don’t get me wrong. I am all for independence, but not under the banner of these thieves,” Ismail asserted. Asked if he would vote on Sept. 25, he replied, “I’d rather cut off my index finger than vote in the referendum.”

Fazel Hawramy is an independent journalist currently based in Iraqi Kurdistan. Twitter: @FazelHawramy

Iraq eager to get back antiquities smuggled to US

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Recovered smuggled artifacts that have been handed back by the United States are seen at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq, July 15, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani)

By Adnan Abu Zeed,

BAGHDAD — Iraq is working to recover the thousands of ancient artifacts illegally imported into the United States by Oklahoma City-based arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby.

“Iraqi and US officials are in constant contact, and the smuggled artifacts are in safe hands now with the US Homeland Security and the US judiciary, which will issue a final verdict on the case,” Maysoon al-Damluji, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Committee of Culture and Information, told Al-Monitor. “Meanwhile, the Iraqi Embassy is communicating with the US State Department to retrieve the artifacts.”

Hobby Lobby was fined $3 million in July for buying some 5,500 artifacts in 2010 that had been smuggled into the United States through a dealer based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to the US Justice Department. The company paid $1.6 million for the items, which were sent to three different addresses of the company in Oklahoma City. The antiquities include clay cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals and ancient clay bullae that were used to place authenticating seals on documents.

Damluji said, “The course of things is in favor of Iraq to recover its archaeological pieces. It is only a matter of the time needed for administrative and legal procedures in the United States.”

She was confident when she told Al-Monitor, “There is an atmosphere of optimism regarding positive responses from the United States to this effect, given the existent law … whereby the trade in Iraqi artifacts and antiquities is not allowed, unlike the Gulf countries, including the UAE. A UAE-based dealer was involved in the [latest] smuggling operation because the UAE is not among the list of countries acceding to the UNESCO convention on smuggling of antiquities.”

The Iraqi Embassy in London and a legal team will work with the US Justice Department, “which has the final decision on the issue of returning the stolen artifacts to their rightful owners,” Damluji said. Moreover, under a 2015 UN Security Council resolution, countries are required to return smuggled or looted antiquities to their countries of origin.

The Justice Department said the Hobby Lobby acquisition “was fraught with red flags” and Hobby Lobby even ignored the warning of an expert it had hired who said the items might have been looted from Iraq. The company never met with the dealer who claimed to own the artifacts. Rather, a different dealer had the company wire payment to the personal bank accounts of seven other people, the Justice Department said.

Iraq has a history of fighting to retrieve its stolen antiquities and has recovered 4,300 artifacts smuggled out of the country since 2014 after Islamic State (IS) militants seized control of vast areas of the country’s north, east and west.

The United States pledged a year ago to protect and restore historic sites and museums in Iraq, according to the US State Department’s top adviser on Iraqi cultural heritage, John Russell.

A source at the US Embassy in Baghdad, who asked not to be named, said that “the embassy’s instructions regarding smuggling cases are very strict.”

Even before the Hobby Lobby case, government sources revealed that the Iraqi Embassy in Washington was following up on more than 5,000 antiquities smuggled from Iraq after 2003. The Iraqi Embassy in Cairo also has sought to restore manuscripts and other items smuggled to Cairo from Iraqi monasteries and churches in Mosul. In 2016, Iraq recovered the head of the King Sanatruq I statue, which is one the significant monuments registered in the Iraqi Museum of Antiquities. The statute was stolen in 2003.

Iyad al-Shammari, rapporteur of the parliamentary Committee of Antiquities, told Al-Monitor that the Public Authority for Antiquities in Iraq has contacted UNESCO “to urge the United States to hand over [any] stolen Iraqi artifacts,” and he expressed great hope of solving the issue soon. “Iraq has been preoccupied for years in trying to retrieve antiquities smuggled outside,” he said, adding that “some of the archaeological pieces were lost and sold on the black market.”

In 2016, artifacts smuggled from Syria and Iraq were being sold on eBay. Shammari stressed that the “Iraqi Ministry of Culture addressed the US Embassy in Baghdad to start the official and necessary procedures to recover the smuggled artifacts.”

Iraq also plans investigations to obtain the names of smugglers.

Adnan Abu Zeed is an Iraqi author and journalist. He holds a degree in engineering technology from Iraq and a degree in media techniques from the Netherlands.

Russia, Iraq call for closer economic, military cooperation

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Iraq RussiaRussian President Vladimir Putin and Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki have held a meeting, during which they underlined the need for the reinforcement of bilateral “economic” and “military-technical” relations.

The meeting took place in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Tuesday.

Putin said that Russia and Iraq have set up “an intergovernmental commission” that is currently working “at full capacity.”

He added, however, that “a lot has yet to be done in terms of economic cooperation…, specifically military-technical cooperation. Russia is proactive in this area, and Iraq benefits from its assistance.”

Paying his third visit to Russia, Maliki said, “With every visit, we take yet another step toward the common goal of further improving our relations.”

Moscow and Baghdad have contacts in the energy, economic and the military-technical fields and are engaged in the implementation of a number of bilateral cooperation agreements, he noted.

Maliki also emphasized that Russia and Iraq “have very good potential for [further] cooperation, and our strategic choice is based on an understanding of the importance of the role of Russia in the region and Iraq.”

The Iraqi vice president further hailed Russia’s active role in the fight against terrorists operating in the region.

“Russia has made a tremendous contribution, in particular in Syria and Iraq, to prevent the disintegration of the region,” he said, warning that without Moscow, “the map of the region would have changed for the worse for us.”

Russia took an “honorable stance” when it agreed to the speedy delivery of weapons to Iraq after the rise of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in the Arab country, Maliki pointed out.

Meanwhile, Dmitry Shugaev, head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said that Putin and Maliki had “touched upon” the supply of Russian T-90 battle tanks to Baghdad during Tuesday’s meeting.

According to Russian media reports, the deal could exceed $1 billion.

On Monday, Maliki sat down with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, Valentina.

During the meetings, the Iraqi official urged “substantial” Russian military and political presence in the terror-ravaged country, stressing that this would bring “balance” to the entire region.

Daesh unleashed its campaign of death and destruction in Iraq in 2014, seizing the northern city of Mosul and declaring it as its stronghold in the Middle Eastern country.

Iraqi army soldiers and allied volunteer fighters have been leading a major operation to rid the country of Takfiri elements. The Iraqi forces fully liberated Mosul earlier this month.

#Turkey Unleashed ISIS on #Mosul Totally Destroyed now want to participate in rebuilding make Billions. @IraqiPMO ‏

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by Fehim Tastekin,

Turkey is working hard to find a place for itself in Mosul’s future now that the Iraqi city is rid of the Islamic State (IS). But tensions with Baghdad during the past couple of years will make it difficult for Turkey to attain the profitable role it seeks in the city’s economic and political restructuring.

There are many in Turkey who feel Mosul should have remained inside Turkish borders after the War of Independence in the early 20th century — hence the nostalgic comments and affection one hears from the Turkmens of Mosul and some Sunni families who were loyal to the Ottoman palace.

But Turkmens, who were drawn into sectarian rifts when IS arrived, are no longer a reliable card for Turkey to play. Turkey’s claim as Sunni guardian caused Shiite Turkmens oppressed by IS to turn against Turkey.

Turkey’s affinity for some Sunni Islamists who had welcomed the IS capture of Mosul also backfired on those who were advocating IS’ rise as “freedom for Sunnis against Shiite rule.” Turkey had problems justifying that attitude, even with its friends.

Further compounding Turkey’s shortsighted vision was its heavy reliance on the Sunni forces of Al Hashd al-Watani led by former Ninevah province Gov. Atheel al-Nujaifi. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added to the acrimony by branding Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) fighting IS as “terrorists” and saying only Sunni Arabs, Sunni Turkmens and Sunni Kurds should be in Mosul. These actions are all emerging as obstructions to the role Turkey wants to play in reconstructing Iraq, despite the impressive accumulation of experience by Turkish companies in undertaking major projects in that country.

The Turkey-Iraq Business Council, linked to the Foreign Economic Relations Council, met July 11 in Istanbul to assess the situation. Representatives of 150 companies participated. The business council’s chairman, Emin Taha, said there are attractive opportunities from construction to textiles that those companies want to work on.

Several sources told Al-Monitor that Turkey’s refusal to evacuate the Bashiqa army base despite Baghdad’s demands is also preventing Turkey from opening a new page in relations with Iraq. Turkey is aware of the importance of good economic relations with Iraq, and there have been some efforts to improve bilateral ties since Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim visited Baghdad on Jan. 7. But every major step is blocked by the Bashiqa issue. Iraqi reactions on this matter affect not only political-diplomatic contacts but also economic ties.

This is how various sources assessed the situation for Al-Monitor:

  • It’s not easy to erase the negative perceptions arising from past mistakes and wrong political choices. But Turkey is truly trying to use diplomatic channels for improvement. Although Bashiqa remains unresolved, Turkey persistently says it is ready to do all it can for Mosul’s reconstruction.
  • Turkish companies’ field experience can’t be ignored. Despite Baghdad’s objections, these companies will be awarded contracts.
  • Even if foreign companies win some contracts, they will still be able to cooperate with Turkish firms and buy Turkish-made materials. Iraqi companies likewise can make use of Turkish companies through subcontracting.
  • It is too early to conclude that Turkey will be excluded from the entire process.
  • Turkey will soon disclose its plans to contribute to Iraq’s reconstruction and may even offer Iraq limited credit facilities.
  • The Economic Development Agency of Turkey is preparing some projects to restore Iraq’s antiquities.

There’s also the matter of Mosul projects that were left half-finished because of the IS occupation. Turkish companies hope to resume their work there, and the Iraqi government owes $3 billion to Turkish companies. Although Yildirim said the Iraqi government is making payments, not much progress has been achieved.

Now eyes are on international donors for reconstruction. Kuwait wants to host a conference on that topic, possibly at the beginning of 2018. Iraq’s government says it will need about $100 billion for a 10-year national plan.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari had said Iraq needs an assistance program similar to the Marshall Plan implemented to rebuild Eastern Europe after World War II. Many countries, including China, are keenly interested in Iraq’s reconstruction. China’s Baghdad Ambassador Chen Weisheng on July 11 delivered a letter to Iraqi President Fuad Masum promising $11.7 billion in financial assistance.

Britain promised a $12 billion credit facility for Iraqi projects; the two sides signed an agreement on the deal April 4.

Iran, which provided substantial support to Iraq and the PMU in the fight against IS, is also determined not be left out of Iraq’s reconstruction projects.

Fehim Tastekin is a Turkish journalist and a columnist for Turkey Pulse who previously wrote for Radikal and Hurriyet.

Iraq declares victory over ISIS in Mosul after bloody eight-month battle to recapture city

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Mosul liberated The Prime Minister Haider Abadi has arrived in the city where 900,000 have been displaced to praise the “heroic fighters and the Iraqi people to achieve the great victory”

Iraq has declared victory over ISIS in the city of Mosul after bloody eight-month battle to recapture it from terrorists.

The Prime Minister, Haider Abadi, arrived in the city one day after Iraqi state television said victory was “within hours”.

His office wrote on Twitter: “Prime Minister Dr. Haider Abadi arrives in the liberated city of Mosul and blesses the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people to achieve the great victory.”

The city was overrun in 2014 when ISIS declared its caliphate and a mission to recapture the city – backed by the US – began in October last year.

Iraqi special forces are closing in on the last remnants of ISIS in Mosul, fighting savage encounters in an area only the size of two football pitches.

Senior army commanders do not expect any of the fanatics will surrender in their last-stand battle around the al-Nouri Mosque – now dubbed “ISIS’s ground zero”.

The ISIS fighters are now surrounded by tough soldiers from the Iraqi army’s elite Golden Division.

Estimates vary on how many fanatics are still alive in a shrinking, constantly shifting battle zone.

Iraqi generals believe there are more than 1,000 left but many are mortally wounded and dying as their lunatic fellow terrorists battle to hang on to the bitter end.

Other observers suspect there is just a handful of fighters left, maybe no more than 100.

Months of urban warfare have displaced 900,000 people, about half the city’s pre-war population and killed thousands, according to aid organisations.

Without Mosul, ISIS is confined to rural areas of Iraq’s desert.

Iraqi forces recapture iconic Nuri Mosque in Old Mosul

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end of islamic State in MosulThe Iraqi army has recaptured the venue of the iconic Grand al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, with the country’s state TV implying the liberation of the city, which has been under Daesh control since 2014.

“Their fictitious state has fallen,” an Iraqi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, told state TV on Thursday.

Earlier, the Iraqi military announced the news as it continues to gain more advances in Mosul’s Old City.

Shortly after the announcement, the Iraqi state television reported the fall of the “mythical state,” in reference to Daesh’s so-called caliphate.

The TV said the recapture of the mosque means Mosul, as the terror group’s command center, has been liberated, while Iraqi forces are in the middle of a mop-up operation to cleanse the city of remaining Daesh elements.

Daesh extremists late on June 21 blew up the Grand al-Nuri Mosque and its Hadba (Hunchback) minaret.

Iraqi authorities and officials from the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh terrorists said the destruction of the site, sometimes referred to as Iraq’s Tower of Pisa, is a sign of the extremists’ imminent loss of Mosul.

The Iraqi army forces have besieged the last Daesh positions in the southern areas of Old Mosul and they expect to purge the area of the terrorists by the next few days.

The combined pictures created by AFP on June 22, 2017 shows Nuri Mosque’s leaning Al-Hadba minaret before and after it was destroyed by Daesh Takfiri terrorists on June 21, 2017.

Iraqi government forces are nearing the end of their eight-month campaign to capture the de-facto capital of Daesh in Iraq.

The media bureau of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command announced in a statement on Wednesday that army troopers had established full control over Hadarat al-Saada and al-Ahmadiyya neighborhoods northwest of Grand al-Nuri Mosque, where purported Daesh ringleader Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the formation of the group’s so-called caliphate back in 2014.

Earlier on Wednesday, Federal Police Forces Commander Lieutenant General Shaker Jawdat said security forces were moving through al-Farouq district and advancing towards Bab al-Toub, Serjkhana, Bab al-Jadid and Bab al-Lakash areas in the heart of Mosul’s Old City.

He revealed that government troops were in control of more than 70 percent of Daesh’s last bastion in Mosul.

Jawdat noted that army troops were engaged in fierce battles with an estimated 300 Daesh militants in the Old City.

Iraqi forces seize more ground

Reports coming out of Mosul say Daesh terrorists have been using Mosul residents as human shields. The militants force women and children to cover them in the streets as they know that Iraqi security forces will not target civilians

Moreover, when the terrorists lose a region, they use human shields to secure their way out of the area.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.

An estimated 862,000 people have been displaced from Mosul ever since the battle to retake the city began nine months ago. A total of 195,000 civilians have also returned, mainly to the liberated areas of eastern Mosul.

Iraq seizes key crossing near Syria from Islamic State

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Iraqi forces have seized from Islamic State one of the official border crossings between the country and Syria, thus choking a key supply line feeding the Islamic State terrorist group.

Al-Waleed, which together with two other passageways links Iraq and Syria, came under government control on Saturday, Reuters reported.

The advance took place as the Syrian government and its allies are hemming the terrorists in on the other side of the border.

Al-Waleed is close to the al-Tanf crossing on the common border, which is the key to the Baghdad-Damascus Highway and also links up to the main Baghdad-Amman route.

Daesh seized al-Waleed in May 2015, almost a year into its deadly terror campaign in Syria and Iraq. It used the bridgehead to expand its grip there to the entirety of the common border.

Syrian forces are, meanwhile, advancing toward al-Tanf, where the US forces have been based since last year on a mission to train anti-Damascus militants.

Back in May, a US-led coalition, which has been purportedly fighting Daesh in Syria since 2014, struck a convoy of Damascus-allied forces that was moving towards al-Tanf. The forces, however, regrouped afterward and continued their advance.

On Wednesday, the US Army relocated a new truck-mounted, long-range missile launcher from Jordan to al-Tanf.

Iraq bans importing Turkish tomatoes, the decision will not apply to Kurdistan

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HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— In a bid to boost local tomato production, the Iraqi government announced the decision to stop importing tomatoes from Turkey.

“The tomato products of Najef and Karbala have considerably increased and it needs more support to boost the local product,” read a statement from the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources.

The statement adds that these two provinces “could meet the domestic demand of [all] the Iraqi provinces as well.”

This decision will not apply to the Kurdistan Region, Rudaw reported.

From Turkey, Iraq according to government statistics had imported tomatoes valued at $98.5 million in 2014, $82.8 million in 2015 and $88 million in 2016.

Iraq is the second country after Russia which decided to halt tomato regional imports from Turkey.

Turkey is the fourth largest tomato exporter in the world fulfilling 6.9 percent of global demand, according Turkish Agricultural Chambers Union (TZOB).

Following the Russian ban, Turkish farmers had sought out alternative markets, mainly in Iraq, Belarus, Georgia and Saudi Arabia, the TZOB said in a statement in March.