The replacement of the military units by the Turkish government , which is in charge of training of the Peshmerga forces located in the region of Basheeqa in the vicinity of the city of Mosul for nearly two and a half year, provoked a considerable controversy in the Iraqi political class between objectors calling for accountability of Turkey, and between supporters who see it as a way to meet the state regulation in Iraq and the Levant ” Daash “. The opposing parties to this presence expressed their denial views and statements at the level of the presidency , Fuad Masum, the President of the Republic of Iraq who considered the Turkish presence “violation of international norms and harm the national sovereignty”, and this position was withdrawn at the level of prime minister, as the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pointed out that the presence of armored Turkish troops is a”serious breach of Iraqi sovereignty. ” And threatened to use all options in the absence of withdrawal of Turkish troops from Iraqi territory .And challenged the Turkish government to present any evidence about the knowledge of Iraqi government or consent to the entry of Turkish troops to Iraq.
At the level of the House of Representatives of Iraq voted on, Desember 9 of this month in its meeting held under the chairmanship of Salem al-Jubouri, a resolution condemning the entry of Turkish military forces to the Iraqi territory. Hakim al Zamili , Chairperson of the security and Defense Committee in parliament and leader in the ruling National Alliance , called on the Iraqi air force to bomb the Turkish troops sites currently located in the city of Mosul. He said: “The entry of Turkish troops to northern Iraq city of Mosul serves just a way for entering of the forces from other countries to be a substitute for Daash”. Al Zamili called commander of the armed forces, the prime minister, Haydar al-Abadi to give orders to the Air Force and Army Aviation to hit these forces in the event of refusal to withdraw, pointing out that ” that these forces entered Iraq according to the approval of the Government of Kurdistan Region , not the consent of the central government.”
In escalatory step by the Iraqi government against Turkey, the Iraqi cabinet authorized on December 8 of this month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to take steps and measures he sees appropriate on the Turkish presence on Iraqi soil. The Office of the Prime Minister stated that the Council of Ministers entitled Mr. Haider Abadi to take steps and measures it deems appropriate on Turkish troops breach of the Iraqi border and violating national sovereignty with full support for the decisions taken by the National Security Council on the subject and follow up their implementation. The statement continued, that the Council of Ministers unanimously agreed that the entry of troops of Turkish forces is unacceptable and objectionable, and that the Iraqi government renewed its claim the Turkish government to withdraw its troops .National Alliance also authorized the prime minister Haider al-Abadi to confront the crisis of entry of the Turkish military forces to the Iraqi territory. Alliance members agreed during a meeting chaired by the President of the National Alliance and Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to authorize Abadi to take the necessary measures to maintain the security and integrity of the country, including recourse to the UN Security Council and the Arab League if the Turkish side do not withdraw its troops from Iraq.
The position of the militias Shiite , spearhead of Iranian influence in Iraq known of its sectarian affiliation to Iran , is no different, whether in Tehran or in the heart of the Green Zone in Baghdad, from the previous positions, in terms that they have threatened to hit Turkish interests in Iraq; in response to what they described as “entry of troops into the Mosul city “. The leader of the kataib Sayyid al-shuhda , Redha al-saadi said that “all militant factions associated with the popular crowd system agreed on the hit of Turkish interests in Iraq, and it is on the process regarding the circulation of data in the markets and between citizens calls for a boycott of Turkish goods.”
Hadi al-Amiri , field leader of these militias, was to hurry to threaten the Turks who are in northern Iraq to “destroy their tanks over their heads” if they do not leave the Iraqi territories which they entered, stressing that the power in the Green Zone, “was not aware of this entry” especially after a statement issued by a Prime Minister’s Office Haider al-Abadi condemning the presence of armored tanks and troops near the region of Kurdistan and Mosul. the Secretary-General of the Badr Organization and leader of the popular crowd forces Hadi al-Amiri called on to go out in demonstrations called “demonstrations of sovereignty” . Amery said during the ceremony of the Husseini revolution recall which was held at Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, “We will go out on Friday in demonstrations of sovereignty and the defense of sovereignty,” adding that we “we do not accept in any way the encroach upon the sovereignty of Iraq.” Ameri said that “the Turks crossed the Iraqi border with their planes , tanks and their land forces and we are silent, while they shoot down Russian aircraft under the pretext that it exceeded the Turkish border by only 17 seconds.” He added all of that “requires from us to make more effort to reject this Turkish aggression”, addressing the Turks saying “You are not stronger than the Americans who went out under pressure and your tanks will be destroyed on your heads in the event of failure of getting out of Iraq.” It also the armed Shiite factions called on to cut off the links between Baghdad and the Government of Kurdistan Region led by Massoud Barzani, on the grounds that the Kurds facilitated the entry of Turkish troops into northern Iraq, and some factions called Abadi for air strikes against the Turkish military sites. In this path, the official spokesman of the popular crowd Kareem al Nouri stressed the resort to armed force against Turkey unless it withdraws its troops from Iraq. He added that “The popular crowd does not differentiate between the Turkish and Daash occupation who defiles the land of Iraq and options are open to the confrontation”.
The cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to force Turkey to remove its troops from Iraq. Al Sadr in response to a question on his position on the entry of Turkish troops into Iraq, and the resulting political positions, that Iraq has become an arena of conflict between several parties such as the conflict between Washington and Moscow, and the recent conflict between Ankara and Moscow. He was surprised to issue statements threatening to strike Ankara’s interests in Iraq at this time, in spite of the recent squat on the territory of this country since long time calling on Parliament to take the path of political and not a military escalation at this time.
Hoever, this sentiment was contracted by Atheel al-Nujaifi,In contrast, the response came from Atheel alnajaifi former governor of Nineveh province and founder of the national crowd who fights Daash, who sees that the Turkish military intervention in northern Iraq “will help to liberate areas controlled by Daash, a welcome intervention by the citizens.” The former governor of Nineveh province Atheel Alnajaifi revealed that the arrival of Turkish troops to northern province of Nineveh “was approved by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and with the knowledge of the President of the House of Representatives Saleem al-Jubouri.” Nujaifi said in a publication on the official page of social site of Facebook to communicate that “the Turkish troops came at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister during his meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoğlu.” He added that “al-Abadi requested any military assistance provided by Turkey to Iraq, and so Ankara sent military shipments to Baghdad airport as Turkish troops were in Iraq to train our troops at Camp Zlican since more than eight months, “saying it was” with the knowledge of Salim al-Jubouri, president of house representatives , who spoke on the subject of the camp with Davutoğlu, and if they can not face the Iranian influence who informed the government of Abadi of its refusal, which in turn changed his mind quickly in relation to the Turkish intervention as if they do not know any thing about the Turkish intervention , this is another matter. “He added Najafi” But we are as citizens of the province of Nineveh, not hold official status, we welcome any force to give us real help to fight Daash and expelled it from Mosul , and the presence of the Turkish support is important and vital because it cuts several ways to Daash and speed up the liberalization of Mosul. Turkey is able to define its role through the international coalition. ” Najafi explained at the end of publication to those who are “renouncing of their decisions that we will spare no effort to free our city after their disappointment to us for the first time and handed over our city to Daash and abandoned us again when they did not take any serious action to liberate it. Atheel al najaifi emphasized , on the context of welcoming of the Turkish intervention, “the information received from the city of Mosul which indicate that terrorists of Daash arrested a large number of former Iraqi army officers as a proactive steps for fear of those officers to join the crowd at the start of the national battle of Mosul.
As for the Turkish position on the Iraqi attack , President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkish troops near the city of Mosul were at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and this was confirmed by the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region Massoud Albarrazna when he commented, “that there is a prior security coordination between Iraq and Turkey over the presence of Turkish troops on the outskirts of Mosul. ”
An analysis of the current Iraqi-Turkish crisis, far from the chaos, tension and sectarianism , it can be said that the Turkish government held intensive talks with the United States before the deployment of its forces around the city of Mosul, in northern Iraq, and that the deployment of Turkish military forces around the town of Basheeqa near Mosul reflects the high-level military coordination between Ankara and Washington , so we can confirm the presence of a US green light to the Turkish move. The presence of Turkish military personnel to train Sunni Arab forces specifically in the region they were present in it is an evidence that Turkey is an important ally in the war on the organization «Daash», noting that the deployment of Turkish troops on the Ba’shiqah is at a distance of 12 to 18 kilometers from the militants sites «Daash», and therefore the possibility of the confrontation between the two parties is strongly presented .
And add to it that it does not rule out the deployment of some trainers of Turkish military in the province of Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, because the province still faces a serious threat from «Daash» which controls the town of Hawija within the province and has broad activity in the Hamrin Mountains, located in Kirkuk triangle and the provinces of Diyala and Salah aldin. As for adherence of the principle of the sovereignty of Iraq over the entire regional territory and insisting on Turkish violation of it by sending soldiers could be argued that adherence to this sovereignty in view to the actual practices made on it have little weight. Since the US occupation of Iraq, the issue of the country’s sovereignty and independence is no longer of a priority in the agendas of the new leaders and politicians , due to the link of many of them with threads and interests of foreign political orientations which draw path of their movements on various fronts , and perhaps the most important beneficiary party of this form of indirect domination is Iran noting that the Shiite factions who are weeping on the respect of Iraqi sovereignty receives each day military experts and weapons from Iran and there are hundreds of elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards between forces «crowd» fighting «Daash» fighters, but when it comes to Turkish or US support for the Sunni and the Kurds , they have objection ,skepticism ,and threats as if Iraq is consisted of one component and as if the war on terror is a competence of a particular component . » The question can be presented in this context on the Iraqi government and Shiite militias: What is Qassem Soleimani doing in Iraq , Is he the representative of World Cross , or what?
The talk of Iraqi sovereignty and do not violate it , As it is well known that the sovereignty of the State of Iraq incomplete due to its fall effectively under Iranian influence since the US occupation and specifically in the year 2006. The concept of sovereignty can not be divided according to the fancy of the ruling political class in Iraq. Iraq several days ago exposed to one of the historical violations of the sovereignty of the state, as the Iranian Shia visitors stormed a border post across zurbatiyah border less than two weeks ago , and more than half a million entered Iraq by force without visas or passport nor identification papers , under the pretext to commemorate the 40th- day anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein! The move has occurred under the systematic weaknesses and a lack of troops on the border and the neglect of the military General Command headed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and of course, Parliament did not speak or condemns, and the state does not act, but left things in chaos and watched by the Iraqi army instead of taking firm and strong position facing the violation of sovereignty.
Does it make sense what is going on? The Iraqi government , starting from the president of republic, and through the President of the Government Haider al-Abadi and all cornestones of the state strongly protested against the entry of Turkish troops asking them to immediate withdrawal or the confrontation with Shiite militias, while the lost Iraqi State kept silent for the scandal of the infiltration of hundreds of thousands of «Basij» elements and revolutionary Guard to Iraqi depth in a public aggression , waving Iranian flags and banners in scandalous historical scene of the collapse of sovereignty and stationing of army lines of the Revolutionary Guards in Iraq to activate the existing lanes of sectarian civil war! Iraqis is leaving 2015 saying farewell with a national scandal of heavy caliber ,and the sectarian system dedicates its historic crisis, and confirms its complete inability of the task to lead Iraq to safety land , and to constitute a real tweak not only to the end of Iraq as a unified state with a sovereignty , but to raise the banner of the Iranian project for domination and segmentation of the region.
In conclusion, the Iraqi escalation against the Turkish military presence near the city of Mosul comes in the context of the military and security developments in the regional environment, particularly after the Russian direct military intervention in the Syrian crisis on the last September 30, and forming an quartet security alliance includes Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria, also it comes after shooting down the combat Russian aircraft “Sukhoi-24 by Turkish Air Force on the last November 24”, which are negatively reflected on the Turkish-Russian economic and diplomatic relations, as it also comes in the context of the Russian threat to Turkey in relation of the response to the drop of the fighter will not only be limited to economic and diplomatic side but it will also include other dimensions. Russia intervened in Syria under the pretext of the fight against state regulation “Daash” for the elimination of the Syrian opposition . This issue may be repeated in Iraq in the face of Turkey unless the settlement of the crisis is rationally done because it would be ominous of a wide regional war.
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies