Turkey has no 'legal basis, agreement' for launching operations in Iraq: FM

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey's ongoing operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) inside Iraq is not being carried out under any agreement with the Iraqi side, the foreign ministry announced. 

On Sunday, the Iraqi Parliament hosted Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein to present the country's official stance on the recent Turkish cross-border military operation against alleged PKK positions in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region. 

Hussein refuted the claims that Ankara has an agreement with Baghdad to allow the former to launch such a cross-border offensive, the ministry's spokesperson Ahmed Al-Sahaf told the Iraqi News Agency on Sunday. 

There was a pre-2003 agreement between Ankara and Baghdad that temporarily permitted Turkish forces, under certain circumstances, to cross 5 kilometers over the border in pursuit of PKK militants for a limited number of "days in coordination with the Iraqi government," the Iraqi minister told the MPs, according to Al-Sahaf. 

However, in 2009, the Iraqi Parliament "canceled" all agreements permitting Turkish military forces to enter the country, Al-Sahaf said. 

"The Turkish side is carrying out repeated violations [against Iraq] that has no legal basis or agreement," he said, adding that even the United Nations' Article 51, which Ankara invariably cites to justify its cross-border operations, must be implemented with "official approval" from Baghdad. 

Last week, Turkey announced its latest cross-border incursion into Iraq, codenamed Operation Claw-Lock. The air-and-ground military attacks target suspected PKK positions in the Zab, Basiyan, Avasheen, and Korajiwar in the Kurdistan Region's Duhok province. 

The Iraqi government has summoned the Turkish Ambassador and handed him a "strongly worded" protest note over the offensive, which Iraqi calls a blatant violation of its sovereignty. 

On the other hand, Ankara summoned the Iraqi Ambassador to Turkey and informed him those military operations will continue if Iraq doesn't take action against the PKK. 

Hassan al-Adari, the head of the Sadrist bloc, which has the largest number of seats in the Iraqi parliament, said that Iraq must take the matter of Turkey's repeated attacks to the United Nations Security Council and the Arab League to establish a "unified stance" on the issue.