PKK is an excuse; Turkey pursues other goals in Iraq.
Despite the clear opposition of the government and the people of this country, Turkey is not only seeking to remove the threat of PKK from the military presence in Iraq, but is pursuing long-term goals.
On July 29, an artillery attack on a resort in the city of Zakho, located in the north of Iraq and seven kilometers from the Turkish border, has kept the atmosphere of Iraq inflamed and angry. This attack left 9 dead, including three children, and 23 injured. Iraq has identified the Turkish army as responsible for this attack, and Ankara also considers the PKK organization responsible.
This incident has once again increased the demands in Iraq for a stronger confrontation with Turkey. Angry protesters gathered in front of the Ankara embassy in Baghdad on Friday and burned the Turkish flag. A clash also took place between them and the security officers who were deployed to maintain the security of the embassy. A massive campaign has also been created to boycott Turkish goods. The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while filing a complaint with the UN Security Council, has announced the recall of its ambassador in Ankara.
But apart from the current crisis, the question arises whether the fight against the PKK, as the Turkish government claims, is the main purpose of this country’s extensive military presence in northern Iraq? What conditions have led to the uncontrollable violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq by Turkey? And what is the solution?
First, we will take a look at the size of the presence of the Turkish army and its operations in northern Iraq, and then we will try to examine the possible goals of this presence, and finally, we will deal with the solution to the end of such encroachments on the territory of Iraq, which we are also witnessing in Syria.
5 bases with 4 thousand soldiers
According to “Abd al-Amir Rashid Yarallah”, the head of the joint staff of the Iraqi army, who spoke in the parliament on Saturday, July 23, the Turkish army has five main bases in Iraq and 100 military headquarters at short distances from each other, which in 2021 will be forty headquarters and by 2022 More than 100 locations have been reached. Some of these bases have been established at a depth of 80 and 40 kilometers in Nineveh province and north of Mosul.
