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December 18th, 2015 
Awake Goy Alwaght- Act I From last days of June to July 1st in 2015, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whose members are Syrian Kurdish parties affiliated to Barzani movement in Iraqi Kurdistan region, held an election in Qamishli in Syrian province Hasaka to elect the new council members.
In addition to political decisions, the Council decided to form an armed unit of Syrian Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan which is under the supervision of the Syrian Kurdish National Council.
This Kurdish armed unit was called Rojava Peshmerga which operated under the command of Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government whose President was Massoud Barzani.
On July 3rd, PUK issued a statement confirming that it is possible that after an agreement between all parties, the Rojava Peshmerga may go to Syria to defend the Kurdish regions. In this regard, Siamand Hajo’s Kurdish Future Movement in Syria suggested that US troops and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) arm and train the Rojava Peshmerga forces. On October 10th, 2015, Rudaw News Agency affiliated to Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government announced that the first units of Rojava Peshmerga forces would soon enter the Syrian borders. Following the news, the Kurdish Watch announced the entrance of the troops to Syria is aimed to put pressure on the People’s Defense Units, the military wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party.
Act II At 9pm, on December 4th 2015, the website of Yeni Safak daily that advocates the AKP government released a footage of an armored convoy passing an area which showed the arrival of Turkish troops to northern Iraq’s province Nineveh.
Following the news, the Iraqi prime minister’s office issued a statement on December 5th which confirmed the news, saying that the number of Turkish troops was about an armored battalion equipped with guns and tanks which have entered Nineveh province to train the force, though without any requests by any federal authorities in Baghdad.
This would damage the sovereignty of Iraq and is against the good neighborly relations with Iraq. In contrast, the Turkish government announced that the troops have entered Bashiqa military base to train Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Ahmet Davutoglu denied any intention to occupy Iraq and said that Turkey just intended to help its fellow Iraqis brothers in the fight against ISIS and fight back PKK elements which have been committing terrorist acts against Turkey since 1984.
In fact, what the Turkish prime minister claimed was in pursuant to a contract of cooperation signed between Massoud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan region and Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the Foreign Minister of Turkey on 4 November 2015, which eventually resulted in presence of 150 Turkish troops and about 25 tanks in Bashiqa military base.
Accordingly, these troops are supposed to train 2,500 Peshmerga forces. Karaman Kamal Omar, deputy prime minister of Peshmerga said the training of Peshmerga played an important role in their taking back Sinjar on 12 November 2015. In fact, he was referring to the 90 Turkish soldiers who spent two years in Bashiqa military base training the Peshmerga forces.
The history of tensions between Iraq and Turkey on the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq dates back to October 2nd 2012 in which the Turkish government asked the Parliament to grant them the permission to enter into Iraqi territory to suppress the PKK. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said at that time, the Council of Ministers after a meeting recommended Parliament that it should abolish the agreement permitting the presence of foreign forces in Iraq. However, the Parliament did not adopt the government’s recommendation until 2014.
The dismantling of foreign military bases and not permitting foreign ground forces entering Iraq, was once put into discussion (with the return of the US ground forces in Iraq) in session 21 of the parliament on October 16, 2014 by Mohamad Mashi Jeri Taee, and as a result, Prime Minister Haider Abadi in session 22 of the Iraqi parliament on October 18, 2014 denied the entry of foreign ground troops to Iraq to liberate lands occupied by ISIS; however, he admitted that they were obliged to let the US-led coalition use the Iraqi airspace.
Nevertheless, the parliament sessions never resulted in cancelling or preventing the renewal of foreign bases or ground forces in Iraq, and the parliament let the matter lie dormant for a while. The fact is that, pursuant to an oral agreement between Saddam, Turkish government and Massoud Barzani in 1995, Turkish troops entered Iraq to crack down on PKK forces. Accordingly, since 1997, the Turkish army established a military base in Bamerni (45 km north of Duhok) in Dohuk province in the Kurdistan region.
Turks have also established three other small military bases in Deir Yalouk (40 km north of Amadiya), Kany Masy (115 km north of Duhok) and Searcy (30 km north of Zakho) near the Turkish border in which about 50 to 100 tanks and armored forces were available. However, in 2008 Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the KRG announced that Turkish troops were in the region according to an agreements with the KRG authorities. Therefore, over the past 19 years, the Turkish troops have been present in northern Iraq in order to suppress the PKK with a variable supply of 1,000 troops and 20 Leopard tanks.
Analysis
Barzani movement and the Turkish government have always had shared interests in the fight against PKK. The organization on one hand is a hostile to Turkish central government and on the other hand is against Barezani movement.
Also, The Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Syria, a branch of PKK in the country formed by Kurdish cantons in three Syrian regions, are common enemy of Barzani and the Turkish government. On the other hand, after a pause in US military operations in Syria, the People’s Defense Units are the partner of the United States on the ground, while the Kurdish Democratic Union Party in addition to cooperation with the United States continues to receive military and intelligence support from the Syrian central government.
Besides, the representatives of the party in Damascus traveled to Lattakia on October 9, 2015 to discuss with the Russians the subject of collaboration against ISIS.
Therefore, it seems that the Turkish government and the KRG are carrying out a joint project in Iraq and Syria in order to disturb the balance of power against the PKK and its branch in Syria, whose process started in 1984 and intensified in 2013 as they declared their Cantonese structure and since then it has continued in different ways.
Source Article from http://theiranproject.com/blog/2015/12/18/from-rojava-peshmerga-to-training-troops-in-bashiqa-what-turkey-seeks-in-iraqi-kurdistan/
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