Not since the Ottoman Empire has the Turkish military been so widely deployed. Besides a 50-year presence in Northern Cyprus, Turkey has troops stationed in four Middle Eastern countries and has said it plans to expand operations in Syria and Iraq. It also has troops in Azerbaijan and Somalia, where it committed to improving maritime security in agreements signed earlier this year. Additionally, the Turkish navy patrols the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, where Turkey claims energy and territorial interests. Here’s where and why Turkey, under ambitious President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is flexing its muscles.
Turkey’s military presence in Iraq is linked to concerns over Kurdish separatism. Turkey has frequently sent warplanes to northern Iraq to target hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting to establish an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey. Recently, Turkey has adopted the so-called inkblot military strategy to seize control of the rugged border areas and established more than 100 military bases in Iraq. This is in addition to establishing several bases in the area where Turkey first assumed peacekeeping duties to enforce a ceasefire between rival Kurdish parties brokered by the United States and Britain in the 1990s. Turkey’s continued presence is to thwart both the PKK’s activities and the independence aspirations of Iraqi Kurds. After attacks that Turkey blamed on the PKK killed dozens of Turkish soldiers in Iraq in December and January, President Erdogan vowed that the military would step up operations against the PKK and its offshoot, the Syrian People’s Protection Units (YPG). In mid-March, Turkey and Iraq signed a security pact to crack down on Kurdish militants holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq.
