Iraq Takes Turkish Base Issue to the UN

This week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to address the issue of 2,000 Turkish troops currently stationed at the Bashiqa base camp north of Mosul. Baghdad contends that Ankara has maintained the base on Iraqi territory without the Iraqi government’s permission, and al Abadi warned that a vote last week in the Turkish Parliament to extend the base’s operations by another year could result in a “regional war.”

The Cipher Take: For its part, Turkey argues that the base was constructed with the consent of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil – the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq – and is a vital part of the training of 3,000 anti-Islamic State fighters, who have already “neutralized” 750 ISIS militants. Turkey justifies its presence in Iraq as an effort to both fight ISIS, and ensure that Iraqi Shi’ite militias do not overstep their bounds in the coming assault on the majority-Sunni ISIS-held city of Mosul.

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