Turkey PM says Abadi's statements 'extremely provocative'

Yildirim called on Iraq to fight the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) instead.

ANKARA, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim slammed his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi once again on Friday labeling the latter's call for a Turkish military withdrawal from Iraq's soil "extremely dangerous and provocative."

Yildirim was speaking to reporters in front of a mosque in the capital after weekly Muslim Friday prayers, reported Kurdistan 24 bureau in Ankara.

"Our soldiers are in Iraq to fight Daesh [the Islamic State group]. There is the military presence of over 60 countries, including the United States, Russia. The soldiers and experts of countries that have no physical or emotional ties with Iraq are there to struggle in the name of humanity," said the Turkish PM.

The diplomatic and political row between the two countries comes after Iraqi Parliament’s harsh condemnation on Tuesday of a Turkish military base near the town of Bashiqa in the northern province of Nineveh.

On Wednesday, Iraq’s PM al-Abadi who took the issue to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) warned Turkey that keeping troops on Iraqi soil could lead to a “regional war."

Iraq considers the Turkish soldiers deployed last year in Iraq as an occupying force.

The mutual salvos have so far resulted in both country's foreign ministries' summoning each other's ambassadors.

Turkish PM Yildirim rebuked Abadi stating that "Turkish presence will continue to be there. Our aim is to prevent humanitarian crises from recurring and faits accompli in the region. We are the ones protecting Iraq's territorial integrity."

"We bear a responsibility to prevent further conflicts and find peace in the region. Instead of obsessing itself with this [Turkish military base in Bashiqa], let the Baghdad Government do something if it can against the terrorist organization that it has been nourishing in its bosom first then speak," added Yildirim accusing Iraq of abetting the Kurdistan Workers' Party that wages a guerrilla war against Turkish troops.

 

Editing by Ava Homa