Under the leadership of a paranoid Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has suffered a lot, down to the very vulnerable citizen. Now it seems that the leadership has lost touch with the reality for real, given even countries like Iraq are able to lure and manipulate Turkey and its leader for their own will and wish. The reality of Turkey being under a severe economic crisis has become a fact too well known. In such a situation while it is willing to manage the finances by selling weapons to interested countries, but the effort has fallen flat.
However, since the Azerbaijani-Armenian battle over Nagorno-Karabakh last year, when the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 armed drones were widely heralded as vital to Azerbaijan’s military triumph, international interest in Turkey’s thriving defence industry has grown. Iraq has lately expressed interest in purchasing TB2 drones and attack helicopters from Turkey; this brought hope to the wannabe caliph, regarding some help with its economy.
Iraq’s earlier intent and Turkey’s interests
Baghdad had secured a preliminary agreement with Ankara to buy an undefined number of TB2 drones, and had also requested quotes for 12 T129 ATAK helicopters and six KORAL electronic warfare systems, according to Iraqi Defense Minister Juma Inad.
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It was exciting news for Turkey that Iraq, often squeezed between the United States and Iran, was turning to Turkey for military equipment. This could have been Turkey’s grand entry into the serious world market of weapons trade. However, Iraq too realised the same and has since been making its own stride to gain maximum and this has caught Turkey in a geostrategic net.
Iraq’s strategic twists and turns
According to a Turkish source involved with the talks, the Iraqis initially expressed interest in purchasing Turkish weapons during Akar’s January visit to Baghdad, but then brought other issues to the table in subsequent meetings. The Iraqis demanded an increase in the flow rates of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which begin in Turkey and flow down to Syria and Iraq, as well as the evacuation of Turkish troops from the Bashiqa base near Mosul, in exchange for military acquisitions, according to the source.
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The extension of Turkish cross-border military operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an outlawed armed group that has fought Ankara since 1984 and has long sought refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan’s highlands across the border, has irritated Baghdad. Turkish operations have increasingly expanded beyond the border PKK camps.
Although Baghdad has expressed opposition to the operations, it is fully aware that it will not be able to sway Ankara on this matter and has not made it a condition. Nonetheless, any concessions from Turkey on the water problem in the midst of Iraq’s water shortages and its military deployment in Bashiqa would earn Baghdad plenty of brownie points in domestic politics. However, this will also make Turkey’s southern borders vulnerable, in the eye’s of Ankara’s domestic population. These developments caught an already scared and vulnerable Turkey into a geostrategic whirlwind which will further strain the country.