‘Turkish army will not take orders from Iraq on the Bashiqa camp’
ANKARA: Turkish President Erdogan told Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to "know his limits" on Tuesday, and said the Turkish army would not take orders from Iraq on the Bashiqa camp.
"Iraq had certain requests from us regarding Bashiqa, and now they are telling us to leave, but the Turkish army has not lost so much standing as to take orders from you," Erdogan told a meeting of Islamic leaders in Istanbul.
"The Iraqi prime minister is insulting me, first know your limits," he added.
Turkey and Iraq have summoned each other´s ambassadors in a mounting diplomatic stand-off and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned Turkey that it risked triggering a "regional war" by keeping troops in Iraqi territory.
Ankara maintains an estimated 2,000 troops in Iraq -- around 500 of them in the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq training local fighters who will join the battle to recapture Mosul, according to Turkish media reports.
Baghdad has repeatedly called on Ankara to pull out its troops, with Abadi warning the Turkish deployment risked a regional war.
The dispute between Ankara and Baghdad flared up after the Turkish parliament extended a government mandate by one year, allowing its troops to remain on both Iraqi and Syrian soil.
The Iraqi parliament has labelled the Turkish troops an "occupying force."
Erdogan on Tuesday rejected the Iraqi premier´s demand for a withdrawal.
"The army of the Turkish republic has not lost its quality to a degree to receive instructions from you," he said.
The Turkish-Iraqi tensions risk complicating plans for an operation to save Mosul, which was captured by IS jihadists in 2014.
The Turkish president has expressed his country´s willingness to join the battle under a similar understanding it had reached for the recapture of Jarabulus in Syria.
Turkey´s army has launched an ambitious operation in Syria, backing up opposition fighters who recaptured the town of Jarabulus near the Turkish border from IS jihadists in September.
