Turkey ready to share military knowledge with Iraq: Defense Minister

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Thursday that Ankara was ready to enhance Iraq's military capabilities by sharing its knowledge and experience as a NATO member.

During his speech in the north-eastern province of Kars, where a joint Turkish-Azerbaijani military drill is taking place, the minister also boasted that, since 2016, Turkish border operations had prevented the creation of a corridor by terrorist groups in northern Syria.

Akar stressed that without Turkish forces protecting the locals from the alleged threat of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the refugee flow would have been "considerable", the official Anadolu news agency reports him as saying.

The PKK is a Kurdish left-wing militant and political group based in Turkey and Iraq — the former considers the PKK a terrorist organization. The Democratic Union Party (PYD) is a Kurdish democratic confederalist political party established in Syria, considered one of the most important Kurdish opposition parties in the country and the YPG is its military wing.

Reporter's code: 50101

#TURKEY #Iraq #PKK #YPG #Hulusi Akar

Previous and next articles

KDP has nothing to do with PKK- Turkey conflict: spokesman

Turkish jets hit village in Duhok