Turkey-Iraq relations became strained after Ankara late last year sent troops to the region of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, to train anti-ISIS fighters there – a move Baghdad considers a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty.

Iraq has requested an emergency UN Security Council session over the presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday, a development that could further increase tension between the two neighbors.

Turkey however, remained defiant, with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowing on Thursday to maintain Turkish troop presence “no matter what Baghdad says.”

Yildirim on Thursday dubbed Iraq’s reaction to Turkey’s military presence at the Bashiqa army base north of Mosul as “incomprehensible” and the soldiers will remain there to ensure the region’s demographics do not change.

His comments, in a speech to businessmen, followed Iraqi condemnation of a Turkish decision to extend by a year the deployment of some 2,000 troops in northern Iraq. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned Turkey risked triggering a regional war.

Turkey-Iraq relations strained

Turkey-Iraq relations became strained after Ankara late last year sent troops to the region of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, to train anti-ISIS fighters there – a move Baghdad considers a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty. Iraq has demanded Turkish withdrawal but Ankara has ignored the call.

Baghdad is now asking the Security Council for the emergency session to discuss “Turkish violations on the Iraqi soil and the interference in its internal affairs,” said the ministry spokesman, Ahmad Jamal.

Jamal said Iraq also asked the council to “shoulder its responsibility and adopt a resolution to end to the Turkish troops’ violation of Iraq’s sovereignty” and “intensify international support” ahead a major Iraqi military operation to take back Mosul from ISIS militants.

In Ankara, Yildirim said Turkish troops would stay in northern Iraq to prevent “efforts to forcibly change the demographic structure in the region” – an apparent reference to Turkish fears that once Mosul is liberated from ISIS, Kurds or Shiite groups may take Mosul over Sunni Arabs or Turkmens.

“It is a waste of time for the Iraqi government to focus on Turkey’s presence there, when there are troops from 63 different countries” to fight ISIS, Yildirim said.

Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed Ankara’s willingness to join the imminent battle for Mosul. Yildirim later warned that the operation could spark Shiite-Sunni sectarian tensions if the majority Sunni region around Mosul were to be placed under Shiite militia control after the offensive.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s parliament adopted a resolution denouncing the extension of Turkish troops’ presence, asking the government to consider them as “occupation forces.” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Ankara’s insistence on maintaining troops in Iraq could lead to “regional warfare.”

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, is ISIS’s last remaining urban stronghold in Iraq. The government is now gearing up for the Mosul offensive and has pledged to recapture the city from ISIS this year.

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