News / Interviews

Turkey’s military presence in Iraq act of war: Analyst

Friday, 07 October 2016 3:03 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 07 October 2016 3:09 PM ]

This file photo shows tanks of the Turkish army at the Turkey-Iraq border.

Turkey’s military presence in Iraq has nothing to do with counter-terrorism and is an “act of war”, a political analyst tells Press TV.

“In the case of Iraq… the problem is that Turkey just decided to do it unilaterally just because it felt like it, just because it has a certain agenda that it wants to protect and forward in the Middle East. It has nothing to do with counter-terrorism,” Catherine Shakdam told Press TV on Friday.

“If anything, I would say that Turkey is trying to control the Kurdish issue and trying to manipulate the situation in such a way that it wants to ensure that its power will remain asserted in the region,” she added.

Shakdam also stated Turkey has violated Iraq’s territorial sovereignty, because Baghdad has never asked Ankara to get involved in the Arab country the way it has.

Iraq has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting over the presence of Turkish troops on its territory after warning Ankara of a new war if its soldiers do not pull out.

Ankara sent troops northeast of Mosul last year in a move Iraq considers a "blatant violation" of its sovereignty. Iraqi officials are also upset by the Turkish parliament's decision last week to extend the presence of the troops by another year.

Mosul is Iraq's second largest city and the last remaining urban stronghold for Daesh in northern Iraq. The government is now gearing up for an offensive and has pledged to recapture the city from Daesh this year.

The operation for Mosul, which slipped into Daesh hands in 2014, is highly significant. The Takfiri group has reportedly between 4,000 and 5,000 terrorists in the city, the recapture of which is about to deal them a serious blow.

Shakdam further stated Turkey, which has played the “terror card” to its advantage, is not “sincere” in the fight against terrorism.

Elsewhere in her remarks, the analyst went on to say that after the mid-July failed coup in Turkey, Erdogan realized that the United States does not have Turkeys’ best interests at heart and cannot be trusted.

However, she said, the Turkish president has been so involved with terror that cannot be trusted himself.

“So I think Erdogan is pretty much stuck. You cannot really trust President Erdogan because he himself is ideologically closer to al-Qaeda and the like of Daesh than to Iraq’s benefits. So that is the big problem here,” the analyst stated.

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