Iraq–Turkey relations are foreign relations between Iraq and Turkey. From late 2011, relations between the two countries have undergone strained turbulence. The two countries share historical and cultural heritages.
Turkey has an embassy in Baghdad, and a consulate general in Mosul, Basra and Erbil. While Iraq has an embassy in Ankara and consulate general in Istanbul and Gaziantep. The ambassador of Iraq in Ankara, Turkey, is Mr. Abdul Amir Kamil Abi Tabikh, who has been the representative of Iraq since 5 March 2009. The Iraqi mission in Turkey includes a defense attaché and commerce office in Ankara, and a general consulate in Istanbul. The Ambassador of Turkey in Baghdad, Iraq, is Derya Kanbay, who has been in office since 20 January 2007. The Turkish Embassy in Baghdad also possesses a commerce office.
Political relations in chronological order To outline the development of Iraq–Turkey relations, this section divides their interaction into key historical stages. Both states emerged in the aftermath of the First World War: Iraq was established under British administration and later as a League of Nations mandate, while Turkey emerged from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Although the Republic of Turkey gained international recognition with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the Ankara-based Grand National Assembly had exercised effective political authority since 1920.
World War I and emergence of two states Before World War I, Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire. While it was administered through multiple provinces, Ottoman authorities and official correspondence treated these lands as a single regional unit, describing it as "the Iraq region” (Hıtta-i Irakiyye). Under Ottoman administrative reforms such as the Land Law of 1858 and Vilayet Law of 1864, Ottoman Iraq was administered through the vilayets of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul. After World War I, these provinces were incorporated into the modern Iraqi state under British administration.
Following the Iraqi uprising The Ottoman Empire lost World War I and signed the Armistice of Moudros with the Allies on 30 October 1918. According to this armistice, the Ottoman Empire's southern border wasn't clarified. Article 16 of the armistice required Ottoman forces in Iraq, including formations such as the Iraq Area Command (Irak ve Havalisi Genel Komutanlığı), to surrender to the Allies. However, the armistice did not clearly define Iraq’s borders. British forces occupied Mosul 16 days later (15 November 1918), a move later contested by Turkish authorities, and the region’s status became the basis of the Mosul Question.
The border question surrounding the Mosul province was one of the main disputes in early Iraq–Turkey relations. At its final meeting on 12 January 1920, the Ottoman Parliament in Istanbul adopted the National Pact, which outlined the territorial claims of the emerging Turkish nationalist movement. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Parliament, the Ankara-based Grand National Assembly continued to use the National Pact as a reference point during the Turkish War of Independence. Turkish nationalists argued that territories with a Muslim majority, including parts of the former Mosul Vilayet, should remain within the future Turkish state, while the status of Arab-majority areas should be determined by referendum. Turkish officials also claimed to represent both Turks and Kurds within this framework.
In 1923, the Lausanne Conference was held in Switzerland to settle issues following the Turkish War of Independence. The status of Mosul was one of the major unresolved questions. Britain supported including Mosul within the British Mandate of Iraq, while Turkey argued that Mosul should be part of Turkey, citing demographic and strategic considerations. The conference did not resolve the dispute, and Article 3 of the Treaty of Lausanne provided that the Turkey–Iraq frontier would be determined through negotiations within nine months; if no agreement was reached, the matter would be referred to the League of Nations.
After the Lausanne Conference, negotiations over the status of Mosul continued between Turkey and Great Britain, which administered Iraq under a League of Nations mandate. The Haliç (Golden Horn) Conference was held on 19 May 1924 but failed to produce an agreement, and the dispute was subsequently referred to the League of Nations. The League established a commission to examine the issue, and in December 1925 it decided that Mosul would remain part of Iraq. The League’s decision was controversial and was debated by the parties involved. During this period, Turkey's diplomatic position was also affected by the Sheikh Said rebellion, which undermined Ankara’s claim to represent Kurdish populations in the disputed region. Under the eventual settlement, Turkey received a 10% share of Mosul’s oil revenues for 25 years, although disagreements later emerged over the total sums paid and outstanding claims.
By 1923, Turkey’s sovereignty had been internationally recognised, while Iraq came under British mandate administration in 1920. Until Iraq’s independence in 1932, Iraq–Turkey relations were shaped in part by British influence and regional strategic interests.
1932–1958: the Era of Pacts During the 1930s, Turkey-Iraq relations were at their most cordial, with both the Hashemite King Ghazi (1912–1939) of Iraq and Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the founder of the modern Turkish state and its leader since 1923, continuing to maintain close relations with the British. From the independence of Iraq in 1932 to the republican revolution in 1958, the most significant events in Iraq–Turkey relations were the regional pacts: the Saadabad Pact and the Baghdad Pact. Turkey had two defence-military pacts between Middle Eastern countries in this era, and Iraq was the only Arab country in both of the pacts. In light of this knowledge it can be claimed that during this era Turkey and Iraq had a close, cooperative relationship.
The Saadabad Pact The Treaty of Saadabad was signed between Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkey on 8 July 1937 in the Saadabad Palace of Iran. More than a defence pact, it was a nonaggression and amity pact. There were two major reasons leading the signing of this pact: to solve the border disputes between the members of the pact, and to express the independence of each state in the international arena. The second reason was especially important for Iraq. Except for Turkey, for the rest of the countries this was the first international organization of which they were founders. The 7th article of the pact was the major article between Turkey and Iraq. According to this article, each member of this pact accepts to avert the armed groups within their territory which are a threat to other member states. In other words, it was a way of ensuring that neither Iran nor Iraq would give any sustenance to Kurdish rebels on Turkish territory or vice versa. By the start of World War II, this pact lost its meaning, except for this article. The last summit of the Saadabad Pact was in 1939, and later the pact actually disappeared.
The Baghdad Pact After World War II, international relations had changed not only in the Middle East but also globally. Iraq became one of the founders of the Arab League in 1945. This league was founded in order to provide a forum for Arab states, and leaving the door open for a possible future federation. First of all, the founding of Israel has radically changed the politics in the Middle East. Iraq took part in the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 by sending 18.000 troops to defend the Jenin–Nablus–Tulkaram region. This war brought Arab countries together and promoted Arab nationalism and anti-Western ideologies in the region. As a result of pan-Arabism, in the early 1950s, Za'im in Syria examined the possibility of a union between Syria and Iraq. However, first Iraq discouraged Syria's aim, and later it became a remote possibility after the coup d'état in Damascus.
Turkey opted to look in the other direction, being a part of the Western states and, after its accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1952, placing itself firmly in the sphere of Western world. For Western countries, Turkey's strategic position was important. Turkey was an unsinkable aircraft carrier. At the same time Turkey could protect itself from the Soviet threat and modernize its army under the tutelage of NATO. These mutual benefits made Turkey a part of NATO. However, Turkey's recognition of Israel in 1948, and later its support of Western interests in the Middle East (e.g. Suez Canal Crisis) negatively affected its relations with the Middle Eastern countries.
The Baghdad Pact emerged in this atmosphere, with Arab countries and Turkey going different directions. Different foci in their extended foreign relations, however, did not preclude Iraq and Turkey from cooperating in common areas of interest. The Baghdad Pact is the evidence of the cooperation between two countries. On 24 February 1954, Iraq and Turkey signed a mutual-defense pact intended to contain the growth of Soviet influence in the region. Later, in 1955, Iran, Pakistan, and Britain had joined the pact. Turkey's, and also Iraq's, aim was to make other Arabic countries members of the pact. However, this aim failed. First of all, Britain's membership to the pact affected Arab countries negatively. Then, Israel was a more important threat to Arab countries than the Soviet Union. Nasserism and Arab socialism were spread among the Arab countries, and more than socialism, imperialism was seen as an enemy.
The Suez Canal Crisis of 1956 affected the pact negatively. Iraq as an Arab member of the pact could not stay neutral in the Suez Crisis. As a result, Iraq excluded Britain from the meetings of the Baghdad Pact and the King of Iraq joined the Arab summit in Beirut in a show of pan-Arab solidarity after the Suez Crisis. Despite the existence of those problems, Iraq was the only Arab member of the Baghdad Pact and tried to create a balance between Turkey, Western countries, and Arab countries.
This experiment ended when Iraq found itself with a new military government and withdrew from the agreement on 14 July 1958, one day before the Baghdad Pact summit in Turkey. At the summit, the situation in Iraq was discussed, and the members of the pact sent a message to the United States to step in on the situation in Iraq. Turkey was more aggressive than the other members of the pact and started to discuss a military intervention. However, the US did not want to take that risk and stopped Turkey. Then, on 31 July 1958, Turkey recognized the new government in Iraq and the tension in Turkey-Iraq relations decreased gradually.
The Baghdad Pact was transformed into CENTO and survived until the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
1958–1990 Iraqi regime and its foreign politics changed after the coup d'état in 1958. As well as Iraq, Turkey had undergone a coup d'état in 1960. The army took control of the government, prepared and constituted a new, more democratic, constitution, then re-established the democratic process again. Turkey's relations with other Middle Eastern countries affected its relations with Iraq during the 40s and 50s. After the coup d'état, Turkish foreign policy shifted into a new era, which is not strictly pro-Western and is extremely dominated by NATO. Turkey considered Middle Eastern countries' concerns in its foreign policy making in this era and had better relations with the Middle Eastern countries. In 1976, the Turkish president Fahri Korutürk visited Baghdad.
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