Iraqis burning a billboard for a Turkish company in #Basra. Anti-Turkish sentiment on the streets skyrocketing. pic.twitter.com/eIBlr4jvxM
— Haidar Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) December 12, 2015
“They can resort to the U. N. Security Council, that is their natural right, but this is not an honest step,’ Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, referencing Baghdad’s move to appeal to a ‘higher’ authority in an increasingly tense standoff with Ankara stemming from the latter’s decision to send several hundred troops and 25 tanks to Bashiqa (just northeast of Mosul) a week ago.
Turkey contends that the deployment is part of an agreement between the two countries that allows for Turkish soldiers to assist in training Iraqi and Peshmerga fighters as they battle ISIS. Iraq doesn’t seem to remember much about the alleged partnership.
Earlier this week, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said Ankara has no intention of withdrawing the troops and even went so far as to suggest that Baghdad was being ‘provocative’ by questioning Turkey’s motives.
We of course have suggested that one explanation for Turkey’s deployment is that Erdogan is keen on having an expanded military presence in northern Iraq now that some rather inconvenient questions are being asked about his family’s role in facilitating the flow of illicit ISIS crude from oil fields in Iraq and Syria to Ceyhan.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that the deployment comes as controversial Iraqi lawmaker Hanan Al-Fatlawi accuses John McCain of planning to insert some 100,000 troops in the country to include 10,000 US soldiers and 90,000 from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and of course, Turkey. To be sure, 350 is a long way from 90,000, but the point is, Turkey is suddenly determined to have boots (and tank tracks) on the ground near Mosul and it’s not entirely clear why.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on 12/12/2015.
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