Erdogan vows Turkey will play a role in Mosul battle

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that the Turkish army will play a role in the looming battle to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS) and that no party can prevent this from happening.

 

“We will play a role in the Mosul liberation operation and no one can prevent us from participating,” Erdogan said in parliament.

 

He claimed there are attempts to allow the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to participate in the Mosul fight, and vowed “we will never accept it.”

 

He also said that, apart from the fight to clear Mosul of ISIS, the strategic town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq also will be liberated of ISIS.

The president warned that Turkey will closely watch the battle in order to “prevent war crimes or genocide happening against the Turkmen people in (Iraq’s) Nineveh province.”

Erdogan had earlier revealed the timing for the battle to push ISIS out of its stronghold of Mosul as October 19.

 

Turkish armed forces are in Bashiqa, northern Mosul, providing training for Peshmerga and Iraqi Sunni forces.

 

Last December, Turkey boosted its troop numbers at the camp, sparking a diplomatic confrontation with Baghdad, which asserted that Turkish troops were in the country without Baghdad’s permission or knowledge. Turkey maintained that the troops were necessary to protect their training mission at the camp.