Does Turkey still support a unified Iraq?
Ankara was quiet after the Iraqi Kurdish forces seized Kirkuk, once considered a Turkish red line.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shared his views on the latest developments in Iraq at a June 24 meeting with the ambassadors of the European Union member states in Ankara. He observed that Iraq is at the threshold of dismemberment.
Noting that 80% of the Iraqi army is made up of Shiites, Erdogan said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been spoiled too much and put forward his exit strategy proposal for Iraq: to form a coalition government as soon as possible.
What Erdogan meant by “a coalition government” is synonymous with a “national unity government” comprising Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds — preferably not under sectarian Maliki as the Shiite prime minister — and is compatible with US Secretary of State John Kerry's attempt to persuade the Kurdish leaders in Erbil.
After meeting in Baghdad with Maliki on June 24, Kerry traveled north to the Iraqi Kurdistan capital to urge Kurdish leaders to join a new unity government and stand with Baghdad in the face of a Sunni insurgent onslaught that threatens to dismember the country.
