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Will Baghdad fulfill Ankara's demand regarding Kirkuk?

Commentary Materials 19 October 2017 17:25 (UTC +04:00)
An important and first step in the restoration of Iraq’s integrity is to withdraw Peshmerga military forces from Iraq’s city of Kirkuk, which is of strategic importance.
Will Baghdad fulfill Ankara's demand regarding Kirkuk?

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 19

By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:

An important and first step in the restoration of Iraq’s integrity is to withdraw Peshmerga military forces from Iraq’s city of Kirkuk, which is of strategic importance.

As is known, not only the Iraqi Armed Forces, but also Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi forces were involved in the liberation of Kirkuk city.

During the liberation operation, the Turkish Foreign Ministry made two statements and called the Iraqi authorities for restoring the ethnicity of the city that is, creating conditions for ethnic Turkmans who were driven out by the Peshmerga forces, to return to their historical lands.

But the Iraqi authorities have not reacted to this appeal. Turkey, in its turn, welcomed the restoration of Iraq’s integrity.

The Iraqi Armed Forces and Hashd al-Shaabi have recently established control over the Bashiqa town, where once the Peshmerga forces were trained. The Turkish military base is also located in Bashiqa town.

Once Baghdad and Ankara had serious problems due to Turkey's military base in Iraq.

The foreign ministers of the countries of the League of Arab States (LAS) held an emergency meeting in 2015 to discuss the presence of Turkish troops there. LAS Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said that the presence of Turkish troops, which was not coordinated with the Iraqi authorities, violates the norms of international law and Iraq’s sovereignty.

Turkey has explained that the presence of its military contingent in Bashiqa town is aimed at training of Peshmerga forces against the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) terrorist group.

At that time, Ankara and Erbil were allies, but today there is a completely different situation in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that chaos in the region is observed due to Erbil, led by Masoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

That is, it is possible to say that after the referendum on independence in Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region, Ankara lost its ally, against which it imposed economic sanctions.

As a result of the recent military actions, the Kurdish autonomous region lost such important cities as Kirkuk, Sinjar, Mukhmur, Celavla, Hanekin within 48 hours, while Baghdad has been demanding to withdraw the Peshmerga forces from Sulaymaniyah city.

The Iraqi Armed Forces managed to barely control previously lost lands and the authorities still hope that it would be possible to establish full control over Iraq. And the Iraqi authorities are unlikely to make any concessions to their new "ally" - Turkey.

After the establishment of control over Sulaimaniya city, Baghdad will be able to demand Ankara to immediately withdraw its military contingent from ​​Bashiqa town.

Earlier, Hashd al-Shaabi announced its readiness to fight the Turkish army if Turkey does not withdraw its military contingent from ​​Bashiqa town.

Iraq will unlikely to fulfill Turkey's demand for the restoration of the ethnicity in Kirkuk city.

Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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