La Turquie refuse pour l’instant de retirer ses troupes du nord de l’Irak, malgré les menaces de Baghdad d’en référer au CS de l’ONU, arguant désormais qu’il s’agit seulement de troupes visant à protéger les équipes turques déjà présentes qui entraînent des peshmergas irakiens (Barzani) et des combattants irakiens contre Da’ich :
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-turkey-idUSKBN0TQ0SS20151207#5hSBErtuG7iqOX3X.97
“It is our duty to provide security for our soldiers providing training there,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview on Turkey’s Kanal 24 television.
“Everybody is present in Iraq ... The goal of all of them is clear. Train-and-equip advisory support is being provided. Our presence there is not a secret,” he added.
Abadi has called the Turkish deployment a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said Iraq was still waiting for Turkey to respond officially."In case we have not received any positive signs before the deadline we set for the Turkish side, then we maintain our legal right to file a complaint to the Security Council to stop this serious violation to Iraqi sovereignty," he said.
On appréciera au passage la position acrobatique des Américains qui prétendent soumettre la légitimité de leurs opérations militaires en Irak au principe du respect de la souveraineté de Bagdad, mais pas à celle de Damas en Syrie, le tout sans condamner clairement, pour l’instant, le maintien de ces troupes turques en Irak :
Brett McGurk, U.S. President Barack Obama’s envoy to the global coalition to counter Islamic State, said on Twitter that Washington did not support missions in Iraq without permission of Baghdad, which he said also applied to U.S. missions there.
D’autant que, selon le journal Hurriyet, les Américains via ce Brett Mc Gurk ont été mis au courant par Ankara de ce mouvement de troupes turques - mais pas Baghdad ! :
▻http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-base-in-iraq-targets-mosuls-liberation-from-isil.aspx?pag
Turkish sources say the reinforcement plans were discussed in detail with Brett McGurk, U.S. President Barack Obama’s counter-ISIL fight coordinator, during his latest visit to Ankara on Nov. 5-6. “The Americans are telling the truth,” one high-rank source said. “This is not a U.S.-led coalition operation, but we are informing them about every single detail. This is not a secret operation.”
Mais un détail encore plus troublant que révèle la dépêche Reuters est que les troupes irakiennes que les Turcs entraînent sont dirigées par l’ex gouverneur (jusqu’en mai 2015) de la province de Ninive, Atheel al-Nujaïfi, qui entretient des « liens étroits avec la Turquie » et qui était en poste au moment de la chute de Mossoul en 2014 devant les troupes de Da’ich, pourtant numériquement inférieures :
The camp occupied by the Turkish troops is being used by a force called Hashid Watani, or national mobilization, made up of mainly Sunni Arab former Iraqi police and volunteers from Mosul.
It is seen as a counterweight to Shi’ite militias that have grown in clout elsewhere in Iraq with Iranian backing, and was formed by former Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, who has close relations with Turkey. A small number of Turkish trainers were already there before the latest deployment.
Sur Atheel al Nujaifi : ▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheel_al-Nujaifi
Du coup on peut suspecter qu’Ankara, qui voit sa possibilité de peser sur le destin de la Syrie s’amenuiser avec les avancées du YPG et le soutien russo-iranien au régime syrien, tente de prendre pied en Irak en s’appuyant sur des obligés arabes irakiens et ses alliés les peshmergas de Barzani :
Political analysts saw last week’s deployment in northern Iraq by Turkey, which has the second biggest army in NATO, as a bid to assert its influence in the face of increased Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria and Iraq.
“Turkey seems to be angling to prove to the Russians and Iranians that they will not be allowed to have either the Syrian or Iraqi war theaters only to themselves,” said Aydin Selcen, former consul general of Turkey in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
Et :
The government of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, whose security forces control the area where the Turks are deployed, backed up Ankara’s explanation: Thursday’s deployment was intended to expand the capacity of the training base, said Safeen Dizayee, Kurdish government spokesman.
“The increase of personnel requires some protection.”
Although Turkey is strongly suspicious of Kurds in Syria, it has good relations with Iraq’s Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.
“Turkey, working through the Nujaifis and the Barzanis, is trying to establish its own sphere of influence in northern Iraq,” said Aaron Stein, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Moon of alabama a consacré un article intéressant à cette question en explorant l’hypothèse de raisons liées à la géopolitique de l’énergie (tenter d’imposer un deal eau du Tigre vs gazoduc Qatar-Irak-Turquie à Bagdad) : ▻http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/12/is-erdogans-mosul-escapade-blackmail-for-a-new-qatar-turkey-pipeline-
Cette même hypothèse est développée par le journaliste d’al-Rai (journal koweïti) sur son blog en anglais ici : ▻https://elijahjm.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/turkish-forces-in-iraq-to-impose-the-gas-versus-the-water
ou l’article en arabe sur le site d’al Raï là : ▻http://www.alraimedia.com/ar/article/special-reports/2015/12/08/641116/nr/iran
