Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Monday that Turkey has partially transferred its troops to northern Iraq from the town of Bashika, 20 km from Mosul, as part of a new military arrangement.
“Our military unit will continue to remain there for military training. Our troops have not been deployed there as combat troops, but rather for a training mission," Davutoğlu said in a live televised debate at A Haber broadcaster.
Turkey has deployed the military personnel to a training camp in Bashika, located near Mosul, a city still controlled by Daesh. Officials in Ankara have called this deployment as a move to train Iraq's Kurdish peshmerga forces to retake the control of Mosul.
“If threat appears, new military arrangements are made. If not so, the troops are shifted somewhere else. We only did what we were supposed to have been doing," he explained. “The additional troops were brought in as extra reinforcement for security."
The arrangement comes 10 days after Turkish troops were deployed in the military training camp near Mosul.
Davutoğlu has also highlighted the difficulty of planning bilateral military measures in advance. “The border the Syrian regime controls is very marginal. As our interlocutor in Syria has already lost its legitimacy, we have taken unilateral measures in this territory.There is a government in Iraq that has failed to control its borders. We have endeavored to take every step in consultation with the Iraqi government."
Iraq has recently appealed to the United Security Council, urging Turkey to remove its troops from northern Iraq immediately and unconditionally. Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi has called the Turkish military deployment a “flagrant violation" of international law. “There is no need for foreign forces to fight Daesh in the country," he said.
While the Iraqi government has accused Turkey of blatantly violating its sovereignty, officials in Ankara reiterated that the troops have been deployed as part of an international mission to train Iraq's peshmerga troops battling against Daesh, which still controls large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Davutoğlu has reminded that Turkey and Iraq reached an agreement over a common strategy to combat against Daesh during his visit to Baghdad this year and his Iraqi counterpart's visit to Ankara in 2014. “This deployment is not a unilateral move. It was certaintly a decision, made in line with international law," the Turkish PM noted.“The military training we have offered in the military camps in Bashika and Diana has been legitimized incontestably."
Turkey has confirmed that nearly 400 troops were shifted to another location in north of Iraq under new arrangement on Monday. A convoy of 10 to 12 military tanks and armoured vehicles are among the military units, which have been sent to north of the Bashika training camp.
Meanwhile, Turkey has dispatched additional reinforcements to Mosul after the country's secret service (MIT) has learnt that Daesh will launch a fresh assault on Bashika town, with the aim of taking control of Mosul dam.
The intelligence report said that Daesh has amassed 7,000 terrorists in order to carry out this operation.
Ankara's move to send additional troops to the military base has been condemned by senior officials in Moscow and Tehran. They have accused Turkey of violating of Iraq's sovereignty.
Turkish officials say the presence of Turkish reinforcement only aimed to support the Kurdish peshmerga trying to ensure security of Iraq's largest dam, formerly named after ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The extremist group has so far failed 14 times to take the dam in the aftermath of its overrunning Mosul and the predominantly-Turkmen city of Tal Afar, 50 km east of Mosul, vital to transit routes leading to the northern Iraqi city.
