What is Ankara’s strategic thinking about the battle for Mosul in Iraq, even as Turkey unleashes airstrikes on US-backed Kurds in Syria? One undeniable fact: Ankara feverishly wants to be in Mosul when the cards in Iraq are reshuffled.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, responding to Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s ultimatum that Turkish soldiers can’t enter Mosul, said Oct. 17, “How can you keep me out? I have a 350-kilometer [200-mile] border there. Those who have nothing to do with the place are entering Mosul. Why? Because Baghdad is supposed to have invited them. … We will be there for the operation and at the table.”

The next day, newspapers close to Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) government reported his words in banner headlines. Erdogan has thus made Mosul an important domestic political issue in Turkey.

The first crisis between Ankara and Baghdad erupted in December over Turkey’s decision to reinforce its presence at Bashiqa, Iraq, near Mosul. In my Dec. 7 column, I wrote that Ankara’s goal is to set up an autonomous Sunni power center at Mosul that will incorporate the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) under Massoud Barzani and the Turkmens.