Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkish troops deployed in Iraq for training purposes in the fight against the militant Islamic State (IS) group were not on combat mission and their pullout was “out of the question”.
The deployment of several hundred troops by Turkey in Bashiqa, close to an area held by IS in northern Iraq, has enraged Baghdad which has asked Ankara to withdraw all its forces.
“What they do in Bashiqa and at the camp is training,” Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara late on Thursday.
“The number of our soldiers will increase or reduce according to the number of peshmergas who are trained. Their withdrawal is out of the question.”
Baghdad has threatened to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) if troops are not withdrawn, saying they had entered the country illegally without its consent.
Turkey has a long-running training programme at a base near the city of Mosul, the IS group’s main hub in Iraq, but the deployment last week expanded Ankara’s presence there.
The base gives Turkey a foothold in an area where a major ground operation against IS is eventually to take place, and where the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has also sought to expand its presence.
Erdogan’s comments came a day after he met with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani, who has long-standing ties with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
Erdogan said Turkey, the United States (US) and northern Iraq will hold a trilateral meeting on December 21 to discuss all issues. The venue for the meeting was not yet clear.
