Iraqi parliamentarians call on Erbil, Baghdad to deter Turkish attacks
ERBIL, KRG, Iraq (North Press) – On Wednesday, Iraqi parliamentarians demanded the governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region deter Turkish interference in the country, describing the Turkish military operation in Iraqi territory as a “flagrant” violation.
The parliamentarians’ speech came after a series of attacks carried out by Turkish planes Tuesday in the Penjwin area of Sulaymaniyah, and a week earlier in Shingal, in addition to repeated attacks in the mountainous areas north of Erbil and Duhok.
Parliamentarian Hussein al-Aqabi, a member of the Parliamentary Legal Committee in the Iraqi parliament, considered the Iraqi stance towards the Turkish attacks, especially in Shingal (Sinjar), “shy or non-existent,” adding that Mustafa al-Kadhemi’s government “condones Turkish operations.”
“It is possible for Iraq to allow limited operations in some border areas, but it is not possible to allow the presence of Turkish soldiers in Bashiqa or the implementation of operations in Sinjar,” he told North Press.
“This issue must be solved politically,” he added.
A few days ago, two Iraqi tourists were killed in a Turkish artillery attack in a tourist area north of Duhok.
On August 16, Saeed Hassan, a commander in the Shingal Resistance Units, was killed in a Turkish bombardment targeting the center of Shingal, followed the next day by another aerial bombardment targeting a hospital in a village in the vicinity of Sinjar Mountain, killing eight people, half of them civilians.
Al-Uqabi described Turkish interference as a “blatant and unjustified violation, especially in Sinjar and what is related to the presence of the Turkish military base in Bashiqa.”
He called for diplomatic pressure to stop Turkish interference in Iraqi affairs.
In this context, the two Kurdish parliamentarians in the Iraqi Parliament, Sarkot Shams al-Din and Ghalib Muhammad Ali, stressed in a joint statement seen by North Press that “the security forces, government officials’ and diplomats in Iraq must be held accountable for their silence about the violations of Turkish forces in Iraqi territory.”
The statement said that “the border guards of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and the Kurdish Peshmerga located in Penjwin and Duhok stood idly by in front of the bombing of Turkish forces and their incursion into the Iraqi territory.”
On Tuesday, Ankara announced the implementation of air operations at a depth of 200 km into Iraqi territory targeting agricultural areas in the Penjwen District of Sulaymaniyah.
Pictures and video clips, published by local media, showed the destruction caused by the Turkish attack and damage to the villagers’ property.
The two Kurdish parliamentarians called for Iraqi officials to be held accountable for their silence about “those attacks.”
They called on the parliament to summon Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein “for his permanent silence on these attacks, despite his full knowledge of them.”
The parliamentarian Rizan Sheikh Delir denounced the silence about the Turkish bombing, which “has no justification and targets agricultural areas and water sources.”
“The silence of the Baghdad and Erbil governments towards the Turkish attacks paves the way for other attacks that may hit the center of the two capitals,” Sheikh Diler said in a post on her account on Facebook.
Sarkot Shams El-Din and Ghalib Muhammad Ali said, in their joint statement, that they demand the summoning of the Turkish ambassador to Iraq to find out the reasons for “the bombing and incursion, which is carried out unnecessarily, as the people of the villages along the Iraqi-Turkish border are often the vicitims, in addition to the burning of orchards and agricultural crops.”
They both stressed “the need for Turkey to respect the sovereignty of Iraq and stop its ongoing violations and incursion into the Iraqi territory.”