Turkey Voices Support For Iraq, KRG As ISIL Attacks Kirkuk

Turkey has expressed its support for Iraq and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) after the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacked Kirkuk on Nov. 25-26.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said on Thursday that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu discussed the attack with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani over the phone.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also expressed Turkey's determination to fight ISIL, during a phone conversation with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani late on Wednesday.

According to Bilgiç, Çavuşoğlu told the leaders that the Iraqi forces should be restructured and that Turkey will continue to support those forces as part of a train and equip project.

Bilgiç also warned that hundreds of people may flee Kirkuk if ISIL gains control of the city.

Last week, Davutoğlu vowed to take “every form of support,” including military training for peshmerga forces, for the security of Iraqi Kurds, calling their security a “vital matter” for Turkey.

“We discussed the training issue as well,” Davutoğlu said at a joint news conference with Barzani, in Arbil. “Our support in the area of security, including this [training], will continue at an increased pace,” he said.

Davutoğlu's remarks came after KRG spokesman Safeen Dizayee was quoted as saying in the Turkish media last week that Turkey and the KRG have agreed on Turkish military training for the Kurdish peshmerga forces.

The Turkish prime minister said the security and stability of Iraq, particularly of the KRG, was a “vital matter” that directly concerns Turkish security. “Turkey will provide every [kind of] support for the security of the KRG. This is a historical, humanitarian and strategic matter for us.”

He traveled to Arbil after talks in Baghdad with Abadi last week. Abadi said Iraq and Turkey have agreed on closer security and intelligence cooperation in the face of the threat posed by ISIL.

Turkey, criticized in the West for not supporting the efforts of a US-led coalition against ISIL, allowed a small contingent of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters to pass through its territory and reinforce Syrian Kurds in Kobani, which Davutoğlu said illustrated the "relationship of trust" between the KRG and Ankara.

Barzani said for his part that he was prepared to send more peshmerga to Kobani, depending on the situation on the ground.

In the meantime, Davutoğlu has said Aleppo would now be as prosperous as the northern Iraqi city of Arbil had Syrian President Bashar al-Assad listened to Turkey.

“We see the northern Iraqi [regional] administration as a part of Iraq and as Turkey's brother. Arbil is like a part of Turkey. We want the whole of the Middle East to be integrated through the economy while remaining respectful to borders. This is our dream. If Assad had listened to us, Aleppo would also be like this. It would be in prosperity, not destruction,” Davutoğlu said on Tuesday at his Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)