Turkish troops in Iraq: motives and objectives

News and information published byMahmoud Khaled Alsurja , Kurdish personality and official spokesman for the national mobilization camp, about the join of (3) Turkish military regiments and complete of number and supply of equipment, tanks , armored vehicles , guns , vehicles and ammunition to the national crowd camp prepared for the Liberation of the city of Mosul, located in Zlican area within the district of sheikhans of the province of Nineveh, raised a lot of questions and speculation about Turkish military intervention in the north of Iraq and to identify its mission as a combat operations taking part in fighting with fighters and volunteers of the national crowd to drive the state regulation of Islamic fighters out from the city of Mosul.
This information led to create a state of confusion in general situation in Iraq, particularly in the areas surrounding the city of Mosul especially this camp contain more than 1200 fighter of volunteers and fighters of the people of Nineveh province noting that it was prepared and supervised by the Ethyl Abdul Aziz Najafi former governor of Nineveh province which includes a number of volunteers from the people of the province of different affiliations and work and links who were joined , prepared and rearranged for the Liberation of Mosul.
The presence of these numbers of Turkish troops calling us to meditate and confront the development of events in north of Iraq, particularly in areas of military conflict and in a clear confrontation with the fighters of the Islamic state in the north of Mosul and its outskirts of plain of Nineveh, where the forces of regulation state is still control over the areas and districts of it which form a strategic and tactical importance in strengthening its presence and survival in the city of Mosul Center.
we can read the political and military scenery in these areas according to the following perspective:
1. Zlican camp was prepared and supervised by the former Nineveh governor who asked a number of Turkish leaders and officers for training and overseeing the preparation of the volunteers and the preparation of fighters and to offer a field help to ensure the success of their mobilized mission in the liberation of their areas and drive the organization of the Islamic state out of it .
2. such forces has already existed in the camp Ba’shiqah located in a area of Ba’shiqah mountain overlooking the city center, where more than 200 Turkish military in various ranks with their military equipments which consists of 13 large military vehicle and (8) large armored vehicles and other small ones numbering (4) armored vehicles with 15 tanks and a number of tankers.
3. Ba’shiqah district located north-west of the city of Mosul and the organization of the Islamic State controlled on the center of the district after being able to advance and crawl to the north of the city of Mosul noting that its presence in it was since the tenth of June 2014 and its control over many sites in the Nineveh Plain area while the highlands and areas surrounding district of Ba’shiqah are in the hands of armed Iraqi Kurdish forces.
4. the presence of this force of Turkish military advisors and trainers are made according to the knowledge and coordination between the Baghdad government and officials in the Kurdistan region of Iraq in more than a year and a half to speed up the pace and prepare plans to bring fighters of the Islamic state out from the city of Mosul and surrounding areas .
But what are the motives and reasons for the dissemination of this information now and who is behind it and what are the expected results of it , this is what we will try to highlight on it in the following points:
1. the strategic decision taken by the Turkish government to link oil fields pipeline which is dominated by the Kurdistan Regional Government with Iraqi Line extended to Turkish ports on the Mediterranean Sea in exchange for continuing to disable the main line coming from southern Iraq and Kirkuk province because of the events that followed the entry of the organization of the Islamic state of Iraq fighters and control over a lot of sites and oil wells in the provinces of Nineveh, Salahuddin and Kirkuk regions, so instead of dealing in a clear and sound vision by the Iraqi government , we see it is stepping up the pace of the charges to Ankara and bring charges against it.
2. Affect on the positive results achieved by the visit of the president of the Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani, to both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and the reception he received from the leaders of these two countries especially Saudi King Salman that supported and backed the Kurdish leadership in the region and its policy in dealing with the affairs and political developments in Iraq and that any solutions in the region in the future , the leadership of the region will play a vital role .
3. To put Kurdish leadership in critical situation in Iraq’s Kurdistan region area and bring about a rift in their relationship with the Baghdad government and try to put obstacles in front of any case of understanding between them, since such information to give Baghdad and some Iraqi politicians a position to use it to aggravate the relationship with Erbil.
4. Turkish presence on Iraqi soil was not something new and got this agreement with the Iraqi government and confirmed by Turkey’s Prime Minister (Ahmed Abdullah Ihsanoglu) in a press conference held on the fifth of December 2015 saying that Turkey does not have any ambitions in Iraq or it is seeking to control the territory and areas of Iraq and the presence of military Turks is to give training courses and providing military advice that contribute to the development of Iraqi fighters.
5. The information about Turkish military deployment came after days of the announcement of the US government to send additional ground troops to Iraq, where more than 3500 US troops are present in Iraq to assist in the implementation of specific operations against the organization of the Islamic state.
6. The announcement on the deployment of these forces came after a crisis of bringing down the Russian plane by Turkish air defenses on the Syrian-Turkish border and try to inflame the conflict situation with the Turkish government and engage it in political positions to be calculated as the intervention in areas of important and thorny and dangerous military conflict and escalate the confrontation with Turkey to embarrass the Turkish officials and escalation of the situation against them in order to serve the regional policies and international interests in this important region.
The political vision of the overall situation taking place in Iraq and the absence of solutions to the reform of the situation in which the lack of agreement on a political project that unites Iraqis to eliminate their sectarian , ethnic and national conflicts ensure that we will see more tragic conditions in Iraq with the continuation of foreign interference of all States and relevant parties of regional and international interest in determining the future of Iraq.

Rawabet Research and Strategic Studies Center