Turkey Could Carry Out Ground Operations against PKK in Iraq: FM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Turkey is ready to launch a ground operation in Iraq if it feels threatened by developments there, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday, potentially complicating an offensive to drive Daesh (also known as ISIL) from the city of Mosul.
Turkey will not tolerate the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state for greater Kurdish autonomy, using parts of northern Iraq as bases, Cavusoglu said.
He accused Iraq's central government in Baghdad of "tying itself to a terrorist organisation" and said Turkey would take whatever steps necessary to protect its soldiers stationed at the Bashiqa military camp, near the northern city of Mosul.
"If there is a threat to Turkey from Iraq, we will use all our resources and rights, including a ground operation," Cavusoglu said in an interview with the Kanal 24 TV station.
"We aren’t saying this to Iraqis alone, but to the United States and all coalition nations, to the northern Iraqi government," he said, Reuters reported.
Turkey and the central government in Iraq are at loggerheads about the presence of Turkish troops at Bashiqa, and about Ankara's demand to take part in the US-backed Mosul operation.
