‘Turkey lying on purpose for its troops stay in Iraq’

The Iraqi government on Tuesday renewed its demand for the full withdrawal of Turkish troops from its territory, asserting that Turkey must respect Iraq’s sovereignty.

 

Although Iraq has made several such requests in the past weeks and has urged NATO to force Turkey to immediately withdraw its troops, Turkey responded that withdrawing their troops from the country is out of the question.

 

The latest Iraqi government statement came a day after Turkey shifted some of its troops stationed at a training camp in Bashiqah to the north close to the Turkish border in order to defuse tensions that flared up recently between Ankara and Baghdad.

 

Experts in Iraq say although Turkey has claimed that their troops are in Iraq as part of a training mission and to help Iraq to combat extremism, its real aim is to fight against its rival the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

 

Read More: ‘Turkey lying on purpose for its troops stay in Iraq’ – Middle East – Jerusalem Post