Erdogan says Turkey to not take orders from Iraq

Turkey will not take instructions from Iraq on Bashiqa Camp, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

In his address to the 9th Eurasian Islamic Council in Istanbul, Erdogan told Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to “know his limits,” reminding him the presence of Turkish military in Iraq was due to a demand made by the Iraqi government itself.

Erdogan said al-Abadi himself had asked for the formation of a military base in Bashiqa, located some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) northeast of the Daesh-held city of Mosul, during the term of former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

“We have live records of all of them and it will be broadcast on television channels today or tomorrow,” he said.

“Now, he [al-Abadi] says ‘withdraw from here’. The army of the Republic of Turkey has not lost its standing so as to take instructions from you,” he said.

The president said Turkey would continue to do “what is necessary”.

He added Turkey could not be “a mere spectator” over the developments in Iraq.