Baghdad on Tuesday moved to end Turkey's military presence in north Iraq where Ankara is pursuing Kurdish rebels, signalling a further deterioration in ties between the neighbours. Turkey has since the 1990s maintained several military bases in the autonomous Kurdistan region of north Iraq, where the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebel group also has bases.
"The cabinet decided to reject the presence of any foreign bases or forces on Iraqi land and to reject the entry of any foreign military forces into Iraqi land," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement. And it "recommends that parliament cancel or not extend any treaty signed in the past with any foreign state that allows the presence of foreign forces and military bases on Iraqi land or the entry of these forces," he said.
A high-ranking Iraqi official said that the decision was aimed at Turkish military bases in the north Iraq province of Dohuk, one of the three provinces that make up the Kurdistan region. The treaty in question "is the one that Saddam Hussein signed in 1995 allowing Turkish forces to have a presence in Iraq's northern regions to pursue the Kurdistan Workers' Party," the official said on condition of anonymity. Baghdad's move appears to be linked to a request by the Turkish government on Monday for its parliament to extend the mandate for its armed forces to attack PKK bases in north Iraq.
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