The Turkish military presence in Northern Iraq is part of "planned training" and the issue has been "exaggerated," Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said on Wednesday.
Kurtulmuş told the state-run Anadolu news agency (AA) on Wednesday that the training has been going on for a long time in that part of Iraq, adding that Turkey has been working with the country's central government from the beginning.
The posting of military trainers to Bashiqa, near Mosul, has caused a diplomatic spat between Ankara and Baghdad. Baghdad insists the forces be withdrawn while the Turkish government has said the troops are merely part of a routine rotation of a training program for Kurdish peshmerga fighters.
Turkey's presence in Northern Iraq is not new; Turkish troops have been providing peshmerga forces – the army of the Iraqi Kurdish regional government – with training since September 2014. Kurtulmuş said the training began after a request from Mosul's governor following DAESH's storming of the Iraqi province. He added: "About 2,400 peshmerga, Turkmens and Arabs have been trained within preparations to rescue Mosul, and that's why this is not a new situation."
"It is an exaggerated issue and I hope the tension will be de-escalated as soon as possible," he added.
Kurtulmuş said the "exaggeration" of the issue in Turkish public opinion and the media concerned the Iraqi government. The deputy prime minister said this prompted the Iraqi government to give an unexpected reaction "with a sentiment influenced by incidents in Syria and Iraq."
"Turkey's presence in Mosul was never against the Iraqi people or the government," said Kurtulmuş, who added that the Turkish forces were there to help fight DAESH. Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu wrote a letter to his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi to inform him of the activities and duties of the Turkish troops deployed in Mosul. According to Turkish sources, Davutoğlu told Abadi that Ankara would never take any steps which could threaten Iraq's sovereignty or territorial integrity. "There will be no deployment of forces to Bashiqa until the concerns of Iraq are addressed," he was quoted by the sources as saying. Kurtulmuş also touched upon Russia's accusations that Turkey buys oil from DAESH, saying that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his family are allegedly involved in the trade.
The deputy prime minister dismissed these claims as "nonsense." Kurtulmuş said Russia's oil trade allegations "amount to overt slander against the Turkish government and President [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]." The allegations came from Russian President Vladimir Putin following the downing of a Russian jet by Turkish forces on Nov. 24 after it violated Turkish airspace near the Turkish-Syrian border, despite repeated warnings.
