A satisfied Turkish FM Gul

1. The final communiqué issued at the end of the summit pledged to protect Iraq’s territorial integrity.

2. All seven countries have agreed to assume a common stance in their fight against terrorist groups in Iraq.

3. The attendees agreed to hold similar meetings in the future so as to continue to take stock of developments in the region.

What do these results mean for Turkey? Again Gul believes:

1. Turkey and the other six countries have agreed to fight against the terrorist PKK/KADEK in northern Iraq.

2. Iran and Syria, in particular, share similar views with our country on the issue of Iraq’s territorial integrity.

3. The summit should be interpreted as a platform independent from Washington, thus providing us with relative freedom to make our own moves on the Iraqi ground.

Another factor behind Gul’s satisfaction is Turkey’s current position on the issue of troop deployment. Gul’s colleagues believe that Turkey now has a better hand in the wake of Parliament’s greenlight of the government’s stance. They assert that if Turkey is attacked or feels threatened, Ankara might make the decision to send its troops to Iraq. Washington, which itself slowed things down after Parliament’s approval of the troop deployment motion, can no longer criticize us for failing to make progress on the issue. The ball is in Washington’s court now. Ankara needn’t hasten to deploy troops in Iraq.

This is how Gul and his colleagues see the current picture.”