Iraqi researcher: Baghdad has no interest in standing with Turkey against PKK

Thirteen years later, Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Iraq, which was postponed more than once as a result of the worsening differences between the two parties, whether political, security, economic, or water.

In this regard, the Iraqi researcher at the Target Center for Research and Strategic Studies, Muayyad Al-Ali, said: “It is well known in recent years that the relationship between Iraq and Turkey was unstable, marred by a lot of tension in many files, whether political, economic, or security, especially regarding the water file, Turkey has tried more than once to reduce Iraq’s water share and to deal unfairly in this area, and has clearly threatened food security, in addition to the continuous intervention operations, whether at the ground or air level, in areas in northern Iraq, under the pretext of fighting the PKK is anti-government and the Turkish state.

The researcher believes that "Erdogan's policy is a pragmatic policy par excellence, and therefore in the recent period this government has suffered from real problems. The Justice and Development Party, to which Erdogan belongs, did not achieve good results in the recent local elections, and this indicates that there is a large gap in this party, in addition to And other economic problems, not to mention the regional and international changes that are taking place, as the world is about to build and engineer a new multipolar world order.”

Muayyed Al-Ali believes that “there are many countries, including Turkey, that are looking for new alliances, and are trying to change their policies by building bridges of trust with other countries,” noting that Turkey views Iraq as a vital field or its backyard, and that Erdogan also has expansionist ambitions in Large areas in northern Iraq, to restore the dream of the Ottoman Empire that controlled Iraq.”

The researcher at the Target Center for Strategic Research and Studies believes that these matters “made Erdogan make this visit and at this time, in an attempt to achieve political, economic and security gains for his government, and thus improve his image and the image of his party inside Turkey, especially after the recent setback he suffered in the elections.” .

He added that there is a fundamental point, which is that “Turkey wanted to guarantee its place in the path of development proposed by Iraq, as this path is very important at the world level, with regard to the movement of global trade and the field of energy, and therefore its return will be very positive in a large way from the economic and even geopolitically for Turkey if it joins.”

Muayyed Al-Ali believes that the main reason for Erdogan’s visit is for “Turkey to ensure its effective presence on the path of development, because it will have a very great future in the strategic term. Therefore, I believe that Turkey is looking out for its interests as it is a pragmatic country, and Iraq must seek an agreement with... The Turkish side on water policies, also on the economic level, as Turkey occupies first place in dealing and trade exchange with Iraq.”

Regarding the file of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Al-Ali believes that this issue is “a Turkish issue par excellence, and that the presence of this party in the Qandil Mountains and in northern Iraq is primarily a Turkish issue, and that Ankara must solve this file radically or gradually, and it must it reaches an understanding with these parties that are hostile and opposed to the Turkish government.”

The researcher at the Target Center for Research and Strategic Studies stressed that Turkey, frankly, “wants to take advantage of this file in order to legitimize its presence in the regions of northern Iraq, especially with regard to establishing a security belt with a depth of 30 to 40 km inside Iraqi territory, as this belt will... Turkey benefits from it to expand legitimately and have an official presence in northern Iraq.”

Al-Ali believes that “Iraq has no interest in standing against one party against another. There may be some problems between the regional government and its opponents, but they must be resolved internally by those governments. Therefore, I believe that this visit contains some mutual points between the two parties.” There may be concessions from both sides, but as Iraq, we hope that the concessions are not at the expense of Iraq's sovereignty, and not at the expense of the presence of foreign forces inside Iraqi territory.