The controversy has escalated inside Iraq over the legal justification that Turkey invokes for its incursion into Iraqi territory to target the PKK, against the backdrop of the bombing of the Barkh resort in Zakho district in Dohuk governorate in Iraqi Kurdistan, which left 9 dead and 23 wounded. Baghdad blamed Ankara for it, and Turkey denied that.

Over the past years, the Turkish army has not stopped using warplanes or drones, artillery and ground forces to hunt down the PKK, which is deployed in the high mountains of the border between the two countries and in the Sinjar area northwest of Mosul on the Iraqi-Syrian border, but the recent targeting of the Iraqi resort opens the door to finding out if it There are any security agreements or memoranda of understanding in which Baghdad allows Ankara to intervene militarily deep into Iraqi territory.

Al-Sahaf confirmed that there are no security agreements or memoranda of understanding between the two countries that allow Turkey to militarily incursion into Iraq (Al-Jazeera)

No agreements, no memoranda of understanding

Commenting on this, the spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Al-Sahaf, confirms that there are no security agreements or memoranda of understanding between the two countries that would allow Turkey to militarily penetrate Iraq, pointing out that the two countries had signed minutes of a meeting in 1984 and it expired in 1985.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Sahaf added that Iraq brought yesterday, Saturday, the Iraqi charge d'affaires in Turkey to Baghdad for consultations, after the Iraqi Security Media Cell confirmed that the bombing that targeted the tourist resort was by Turkish artillery.

Hussein said that Iraq submitted 296 memoranda of protest against Turkish interference (Iraqi News Agency)

In the session of the Iraqi Parliament, which was held yesterday, Saturday, to discuss the incident, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein reviewed the nature of the relationship between Iraq and Turkey since the borders between the two countries were demarcated and agreements were concluded between them decades ago, pointing to the presence of an official record signed by the then Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. With his Turkish counterpart in 1984 and for a period of only one year, it was related to allowing Turkish forces to enter Iraqi territory with a distance of no more than 5 kilometers.

Hussein added that since 2018, Iraq has recorded more than 22,700 Turkish violations of Iraqi lands, and that he submitted 296 protest notes against Turkish interventions, as they were recently included with the complaint submitted to the UN Security Council, which is expected to hold a special session for that on Tuesday.

Al-Halbousi: There are no security agreements or memoranda of understanding between Iraq and Turkey (Al-Jazeera)

In turn, Iraqi security and strategic expert Jamal Al-Halbousi confirms that there are many agreements between Iraq and Turkey regarding international borders and the sharing of water and rivers, but there are no security agreements or memoranda of understanding between them.

Al-Halbousi - who worked in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense on the border file for nearly two decades - added that there were many military records between Baghdad and Ankara, which were characterized by confidentiality and that no ministry was informed of them except for the Ministry of Defense and representatives of the Ministry of Interior and the Chief of Staff of the two armies, and that the meetings of A periodical was held on this matter.

He revealed in his speech to Al Jazeera Net that for political reasons, Iraq before 2003 during the era of the late President Saddam Hussein allowed the Turkish army to chase the PKK and penetrate a distance of no more than 50 km, while not approaching cities and not damaging public and private property.

Davutoglu: The Iraqi haste to accuse Turkey indicates many question marks (Al-Jazeera)

Turkish question marks

On the other hand, the Turkish political analyst Yusuf Kateboglu indicated in an exclusive interview to Al-Jazeera Net that the Iraqi haste to accuse Turkey indicates many question marks and what he described as "a matter hatched at night", in order to inflame Iraqi and global public opinion against Turkey, as well as The accusations come in the midst of Turkish preparations for a military operation in northern Syria, adding that there is no benefit for Turkey in attacks that amount to war crimes, especially with the fall of civilians and children in a tourist area.

Regarding whether there are any agreements between Baghdad and Ankara that allow Turkey to intervene militarily, Ihsanoglu clarified that Turkey does not need such agreements or memoranda of understanding to target the PKK, as it relied on Article No. (51) of the United Nations Charter to incur the incursion into Iraq and target the PKK, Which stipulates that a state that is subjected to aggression across the borders of a neighboring state allows the state whose national security is threatened to enter the other state that was unable to control its security, as he put it.

He added that there were agreements concluded between Iraq and Turkey in 1984 that allowed Turkey to penetrate the country, and although the agreement was not renewed, the threats to Turkey forced it to intervene militarily, pointing out that the presence of many Turkish military bases inside Iraq was with Iraqi approval. Such as the Zilikan base in Bashiqa, which was the product of the Turkish government's agreement with the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Al-Tamimi: Iraq can resort to the International Court of Justice to sue Turkey for what its forces are doing inside its territory (Al-Jazeera)

Commenting on this, the Iraqi legal expert Ali Al-Tamimi says that Turkey can invoke Article 51 of the United Nations Charter only with conditions, the first of which is to inform the UN Security Council of this first-hand, which has never happened.

Al-Tamimi added that Iraq can resort to the International Court of Justice to sue Turkey for what its forces are doing inside its territory, as well as the possibility of requesting assistance from the United States in accordance with Article 27 of the bilateral agreement between Baghdad and Washington for the year 2008, with notification to Turkey of Iraq’s cancellation of all previous memoranda of understanding and records to drop The argument of the Turks to intervene in it.

Military lectures after 2003

Regarding the current situation, expert Jamal al-Halbousi says that “the last military records between the two sides were in 2015 and were under the supervision of the Iraqi Army Chief of Staff and Minister of Interior Othman al-Ghanimi, and that Turkey invested this record to fight terrorism in all its names, and that the Office of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and the security authorities are The only one who has access to the minutes of the military meeting.

Regarding the gaps in the military records, Al-Halbousi described the Iraqi diplomacy as ineffective, and that the Iraqi side should have put in the 2015 UN Counter-Terrorism Conference warnings in order for neighboring countries not to interfere in Iraqi territory, and that the United Nations would have adopted the Iraqi recommendation if Iraq had submitted it Pointing out that Iraq and Turkey did not specify a time period for the validity of the military records, and therefore there is still great ambiguity in this aspect.

Elias: The number of Turkish soldiers present in bases inside Iraq is estimated at more than 7,000 (communication sites)

For his part, the Iraqi academic and researcher specialized in strategic affairs and international security, Firas Elias, says that there are no security agreements between Iraq and Turkey, but in 2007, during the visit of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to Turkey, and after the signing of the strategic cooperation agreement between the two countries, a memorandum of understanding was signed. Security between the two parties, and the memorandum allowed the Turkish side to penetrate 35 km deep into Iraqi territory to pursue the PKK.

And Elias continued, in an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the visit of the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi to Turkey did not witness the signing of any memorandum of understanding, except that the Turkish sources talk about that Al-Kazemi gave a green light to Turkey to carry out bombing and overflights of drones at a depth of 50 km to pursue and destroy the hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Al-Jazeera Net correspondent was unable to verify this information from Iraqi government sources.

Elias reveals that, through the memoranda of understanding, Turkey owns 51 military points spread along the Iraqi-Turkish border, and a military base in Bashiqa, where the number of Turkish soldiers present in those bases and points is estimated at more than 7,000 soldiers who move in large geographical areas that reach about 100 km deep in the territory. Iraqi.

Iraqi political and military leaders at the resort site that was targeted by the bombing (Reuters)

What is the possibility of canceling the minutes of the meeting?

There are many ways in which the minutes of the military meeting can be canceled, as although the spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that they are no longer valid after 1985, Jamal Al-Halbousi confirmed in his speech to Al Jazeera Net that Iraq can invalidate them by submitting a memorandum by The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Security Ministries refer to the UN Security Council and the Arab League and consider any military action and Turkish presence inside Iraqi territory a transgression against the country, with the departure of these forces within a period not exceeding one month.

As for Firas Elias, he believes that memoranda of understanding or military records cannot be considered agreements, noting that the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was in the process of canceling them, but the presence of US forces in northern Iraq during the nineties of the last century and their establishment of the safe zone made termination of its effect impossible.

Elias added that according to the previous Treaty Contracting Law No. (111) of 1979 and the new Treaty Contracting Law No. (35) of 2015, these minutes cannot be considered agreements, as the last law stipulated in Article (17) the approval of the House of Representatives by a two-thirds majority to conclude security treaties that affecting the sovereignty of Iraq.

"Accordingly, it is very easy for the Iraqi government to end the work with these memoranda, which are one of the tools to respond to the latest attack, and put an end to future Turkish attacks, as well as enabling Iraq in the future to end the presence of the PKK in Sinjar and elsewhere," he said.

Elias believes that despite the ways in which Iraq can nullify the memoranda of understanding and military records, this dilemma will not be put to an end except by returning the Iraqi army to these areas, imposing state authority on all Iraqi lands, and resorting to force to end the existence of the PKK in any way. She was, pointing out that Iraq may resort in the future to holding a new bilateral record that defines the nature of Turkey's prosecution of the PKK.

It is noteworthy that the Iraqi border areas with Turkey are witnessing frequent tension and violence. In mid-April, Turkey announced the implementation of a new operation against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, and the operation - which was called "Lock Claw" - came after the "Tiger Claw" and "Operations" Eagle Claw" launched by the Turkish army in northern Iraq in 2020.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party - which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a "terrorist" organization - has been waging an insurgency against Turkey since 1984, and is based in remote mountainous areas of Iraq.