Turkish-Iraqi Axis
Erdogan in Iraq with his security force.
A strategic cooperation deal Turkey signed with neighboring Iraq this week is unprecedented and rather similar to a Franco-German alliance that laid the foundations for today’s European Union, PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. … Barham Saleh, the Iraqi deputy prime minister, described the Turkish-Iraqi rapprochement as “significant enough to change the entire Middle East” and to create a “Turkish-Iraqi axis.” This, he said, would link Europe to the oil and gas-rich Gulf region and could be the starting point for a Middle Eastern common market.
Erdogan confirmed that the Turkish-Iraqi cooperation would mean a major route emerging to bring in gas and oil from the Middle East to Europe. “We are not talking about economic relations here. We are actually going into economic integration with Iraq.”…
He also said Turkey wanted the construction of a natural gas pipeline parallel to an oil pipeline that carries crude oil from Iraq’s northern oil fields in Kirkuk to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Yumurtalik. “The pipeline will transport Iraqi natural gas to Turkey, from where it will be pumped to the Nabucco pipeline,” he said.
Nabucco is a planned pipeline to bring gas from Central Asia and the Middle East to central Europe to reduce European dependence on Russia for natural gas….
Turkey’s state-owned oil company, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), has recently been certified by Iraqi authorities to explore for oil and gas in the energy-rich country….
In addition to energy, the two countries are also willing to cooperate in the security and military areas. … Erdogan said Turkey would train Iraqi police and military personnel and help Iraq acquire the military equipment it needs.
Turkish companies are already active in Iraq, particularly in the construction sector in Iraq’s north, and the Iraqi government has pledged to favor companies from neighboring countries, including Turkey, in lucrative reconstruction tenders. “They have a $21 billion budget surplus, but they need schools and hospitals,” Erdogan said….
Milliyet newspaper reported that Erdogan proclaimed “I am not Shiite, nor Sunni. I am a Muslim.” (click here, in Turkish)
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