Are Turkish Troops really Leaving Iraq?

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Are Turkish Troops really Leaving Iraq?

December 14th, 2015

Awake Goy

nsnbc : Part of the Turkish troops deployed in Iraq in violation of international law are, according to unnamed Turkish military officials, leaving their positions in northern Iraq to move toward the Turkish border. The move comes after Baghdad had protested the illegal incursion of Turkish troops into Iraq at the UN.

The devil is, as always, in the detail. Moving troops toward the Turkish border does by no means imply that the Turkish troops will be leaving Iraqi territory. Statements by Turkish military officials in that regard were evasive, at best, some would say misleading.

In early December the central government of Iraq in Baghdad denounced the uninvited incursion of Turkish troops into sovereign Iraqi territory a hostile act. Turkey’s government, for its part, has been acting in concert with the Barzani administration in the so-called autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq in Erbil.

Erbil and Ankara are known for being the primary operators behind the illegal export of Iraqi as well as Syrian oil from Syria and northern Iraq via Turkey and beyond. Part of this oil, especially Syrian oil is being supplied via the self-proclaimed Islamic State, a.k.a. ISIS / ISIL / Daesh.

Ankara is foot-dragging, claiming that the Turkish troops in Iraq were meant to guard an international train and equip mission of Iraqi forces. Ankara is, in other words, using semantics in the attempt to justify the violation of Iraqi sovereignty; That is, Kurdish Peshmerga troops in northern Iraq are, of course also “Iraqi”.

Turkey’s presence in northern Iraq is widely perceived as part of a long-term Turkish and NATO policy with regard to the Kurdish question. Ankara and Washington / NATO doe, however, not agree on all parts of this “Kurdish Corridor” plan, and Russia is not shy of playing its cards, although as covertly as most other international actors.

Ankara and Washington / NATO agree in as much as both would like to help carve out a Kurdish State construct from northern Iraq. Ankara does, however, not agree with Washington’s / NATO’s attempt to “Balkanize” Syria by establishing a Kurdish region / State construct along Turkey’s southwestern border. Hence, Ankara’s support of Al-Nusrah and “Turkmen rebels”. Moscow, for its part, is a traditional ally of Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party, PKK, which creates a Moscow version of NATO’s “stay behind” armies in Turkey. The PKK as a buffer against NATO plans to expand eastwards.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davotoglu said on Friday that Turkey would reorganize its military personnel at the Bashiqa camp near Mosul. The announcement came after talks with Iraqi officials but was ambiguous about whether Turkey will withdraw its troops from Iraq in accordance with international law.

CH/L – nsnbc 14.12.2015