Illustration, gagrulenet
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended on Friday Turkish troop deployment in a base in northern Iraq after Turkish officials said soldiers there repelled an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants, Today’s Zaman reported.
Eighteen IS militants were killed in the attack on the Bashiqa camp in the Nineveh province, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) from the Turkish border, where Turkish soldiers are training Iraqi Kurdish forces, Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul. There were no casualties among the Turkish troops, he said.
Erdogan said the incident vindicated a Turkish decision to deploy troops to the camp and reiterated that the Turkish deployment had been in coordination with the Iraqi government, despite recent Iraqi protests against the Turkish military presence.
Erdogan said the Iraqi position has changed after Turkey’s relations with Russia deteriorated following the downing of a Russian jet by Turkish F-16s near the border with Syria in late November and criticized the Russian military involvement in Syria.
“Russia says it is in Syria because it was invited by the Syrian government. The Syrian government is not a legitimate government,” he said. “Why did you send forces to Georgia then? Because you were invited? Did you send forces to Ukraine because you were invited there?”
Erdogan also rejected that Russian forces are fighting ISIL in Syria. “Turkmens say Russia bombs their villages. Russia is not fighting against IS,” he said.
Turkey deployed a force protection unit of around 150 troops last month, citing heightened security risks near Bashiqa, where its troops are training the Iraqi militia to fight IS, and stirring a diplomatic row.
Iraq has objected to the deployment and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi accused Ankara last week of failing to respect an agreement to withdraw the troops. Iraq’s foreign minister warned Baghdad could resort to military action if forced.
Iraqi security forces have had only a limited presence in the Nineveh province, where the camp is located, since collapsing in June 2014 in the face of a lightning advance by IS.
Ankara has acknowledged there was a “miscommunication” with Baghdad over the deployment.
It later withdrew some troops to another base inside the nearby autonomous Kurdistan region and said it would continue to pull out of the Nineveh province, where Bashiqa is located, but President Erdogn has ruled out a full withdrawal.