Iraq’s Governing Council Opposes Turkish Deployment

"We believe any interference from a neighbouring country, either north, south, west or east, is unacceptable. This interference will jeopardise both Iraq and that country (which intervenes)," says Mouwafak Al-Rabii, Shiite member of the council Iraq’s Governing Council.

Turkey’s parliament on Tuesday approved a request by the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to dispatch Turkish troops to Iraq, a move intended to mend ties with Washington.

Kurds concerned

Kurds in northern Iraq also expressed concern about the prospect of Turkish troops joining the US-led coalition.
Participation of Turkish troops in peacekeeping in Iraq could also provoke unrest amongst Iraqi Kurds, given the decades of fighting between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels over the border in southeastern Turkey.

In Irbil, Adnan Almoffti, a representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said that the troops’ arrival would further Turkish interests in Iraq.

On their part, the Turks are extremely concerned that instability in Iraq does not help re-ignite the 15-year war for Kurdish autonomy, in which some 37,000 people died.