The politician criticized the Ankara government, which is, according to him, responsible for the deterioration of Turkey’s relations with neighboring countries, including Russia and Iraq, RIA Novosti reported.
"Rather than maintain good neighborly relations, you start a fight, and then try to finish it with a peace. But in doing so you are creating enemies. You bring all Turkey’s opponents together to one camp and create a very strong front against it," Kılıçdaroğlu said in an interview with Hurriyet, while replying to a question on the crisis in Russian-Turkish relations.
The politician also criticized the Turkish authorities for the deployment of their military contingent to Iraq.
"They decided to deploy troops in Iraq without even informing the central government about it. You deploy troops, as if you are doing it in your own country. This is unacceptable," Kılıçdaroğlu said.
On December 4, Iraqi authorities announced that the Turkish military and armored vehicles entered the Iraqi province of Nineveh. The operation was allegedly aimed at training Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. The initiative was not authorized by Baghdad. Iraqi authorities called it a “hostile action” and urged Ankara to immediately pull out its forces, including tanks and artillery, from northern Iraq and refrain from similar actions in the future.
