Iraqi FM calls for French, German, British support to stop Turkish attacks
Iraqi Foreign Ministry Official Spokesman Dr. Ahmed Al-Sahaf said in a statement that Hussein spoke with counterparts Jean-Yves Le Drian of France, Heiko Maas of Germany. He also held talks with the UK State Minister for the Middle East and North Africa James Cleverley.
The discussions, separately, included security and political developments in Iraq, chief among them the recent attack by Turkey, "which caused the martyrdom of two officers and an Iraqi soldier," the Iraqi ministry noted.
"During these three contacts, [Hussein] expressed his rejection of Turkey's violations of the sanctity and sovereignty of Iraq, condemning the recent attack on the Sidakan area in Erbil governorate of Kurdistan."
Hussein called for the "importance of [the French, German, and British] governments taking an active role to stop the repeated attacks from the Turkish side, and to withdraw its forces infiltrating Iraqi territory."
On August 11, Turkish airstrikes killed a senior Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) commander and three Iraqi border guard personnel.
So far, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry has sent three protest notes to the Turkish ambassador since June to protest Turkish bombings of and ground incursion into the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey claims it is targeting the PKK, but its military operations have caused human causalities and material losses in the border areas of the region.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has yet to apologize for the killing of three Iraqi military personnel and blamed Iraq in a statement on August 12 for not taking "necessary measures against PKK elements on its territory."
In a letter to the UN on July 13, Turkey claimed it had the right of self-defense according to UN Charter 51 since Iraq was unable to deal "with the presence of terrorists in its own territory."
On Thursday, the French Foreign Ministry condemned Turkey's attacks as a "violation" of Iraq's sovereignty.
The UK has not commented on the Turkish airstrikes, but last month the UK Ambassador in Turkey raised the issue of reports of civilian casualties due to Turkish operations.
Germany, for its part, has remained quiet on the issue.
This, despite a July report by the Scientific Services of the German Parliament (WD) that concluded that the Turkish operation was a violation of international law and that Ankara could not claim the right to self-defense.
The report said that "there is currently no armed attack on the part of the PKK and thus no self-defense situation for Turkey that could justify the violation of the ban on use of force against Iraq."
Helin Evrim Sommer, a member of the German legislature and development policy spokesperson for the Left Party parliamentary group, said in a tweet on Wednesday that Berlin "continues to ignore this assessment and tacitly approves of Erdogan's war against the Kurds."
"The continued violations of international law by the UN and NATO member Turkey must no longer remain without consequences," Sommer has previously told Kurdistan 24.
"The Erdogan regime undoubtedly violates Iraq's integrity and sovereignty in a deliberate manner. The federal government must therefore immediately end military cooperation with Ankara and all arms and armaments exports to Turkey at the bilateral level," she said.
Editing by Khrush Najari
