Northern Iraq offensive

Iraqi and Kurdish forces on Thursday launched a major advance north and northeast of Mosul, Islamic State's stronghold in Iraq, on the fourth day of a mission to recapture the city.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan definitely wants Turkey to be part of the Mosul operation and has the support of nationalists and Islamists alike. For the former, this is a matter of national honor because they believe Mosul belongs to Turkey by birthright.

Turkey has called on the international community to start drafting an international plan for Mosul to ensure the city is governed by mainly local groups, a senior government official has said, underlining that Ankara was ready to take all measures to avoid any attempted ethnic cleansing after the region is cleared of jihadists. 

The operation to save Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has begun. It is led by the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army, Shiite militias, Kurdish Peshmerga forces, some Sunni forces trained by Turkey, and of course the United States, which is coordinating the whole effort. Turkey, however, is rather angry about what is going on. Why?

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said an Iraqi delegation will visit Turkey by the end of the week, probably on Oct. 20, stressing that both Ankara and B are willing to solve the political dispute between them through "dialogue."

"Ten years ago, the Americans helped Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province west of Baghdad form the 'Awakening' movement to defeat a previous incarnation of violent fundamentalist Islam - al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Turkey sent a delegation to Baghdad on Oct. 17 for talks with the Iraqi administration, aiming for Baghdad to reconsider its objection to Turkish troops stationed in northern Iraq.

The long-awaited operation to free Iraq's second city, Mosul, from the Islamic State (IS) extremist organization has begun, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says.

"Dear people of Iraq, beloved people of Nineveh province, the hour of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have begun," DPA quotes Al-Abadi as saying in a televised address.

The United States is taking Turkish concerns into account over the role of Shiite militias in the upcoming Mosul operation to clear Iraq's second-largest town of jihadists, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık has said as preparatory military mobilization continued over the weekend. 

The World Energy Congress held in Istanbul was boycotted by some countries, scorned or ignored by some others… Was the absence of Iran and Iraq newsworthy? Indeed. But that was all. Their presence would have meant a lot. In international diplomacy, rebuffing a platform where a country might have the chance to explain its views on an issue can best be described as counterproductive.