Erdogan slams Iraq over failures to deal with Daesh

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that Iraq was incapable of driving Daesh from the city of Mosul by itself, and that the presence of Turkish forces in a nearby military camp was an insurance against attacks on Turkey.

Turkey has been locked in a row with Iraq’s central government about the presence of Turkish troops at the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq, and over who should take part in the planned US-backed assault on Mosul.

“We won’t let Mosul be given to Daesh or any other terrorist organisation,” Erdogan said, indicating perhaps extremist Shia militias that have been responsible for many atrocities against Sunni civilians.

“They say Iraq’s central government needs to approve this but the Iraqi central government should first deal with their own problems [before making demands of Turkey],” the Turkish leader said.

Speaking at the Black Sea town of Rize, Erdogan then slammed Baghdad for its failures in dealing with Daesh, saying: “Why did you let Daesh enter Iraq? Why did you let Daesh enter Mosul? They were almost going to come to Baghdad. Where are you, the central government of Iraq?”

Turkey fears that Shia militias and the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), which have heavily supported and even led operations to retake territory from Daesh, will be used in the planned Mosul offensive.

Ankara believes that the use of Shia militias in the Mosul operation, expected to start this month, will stoke sectarian unrest, leading to extreme violence against Sunni civilians that will then trigger an exodus of refugees.

Turkey is also hesitant to withdraw from Bashiqa as elements of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a separatist organisation that has bombed civilians across Turkey and that Ankara considers a terrorist group, have been said to be gearing up to participate in the fight against Daesh.

“Nobody should talk about our Bashiqa base. We will stay there. Bashiqa is our insurance against any kind of terrorist activities in Turkey,” Erdogan said.

Turkish soldiers have been training Sunni Arabs, Turkmens and allied Kurdish Peshmerga units at the Bashiqa camp near Mosul, and want them to be involved in the assault. Baghdad objects to the Turkish military presence there.

The United States has said any foreign forces in Iraq should have the approval of the Baghdad government, while unnamed US officials appeared to even suggest that Iraq had already approved of Turkey’s presence in Iraq.