Baghdad on Wednesday announced the recall for consultations of its chargé d’affaires from the Iraqi Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and summoned the Turkish ambassador to Iraq for explanations over an artillery bombardment that killed at least nine tourists in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The Iraqi Ministerial Council for National Security made the decision after an emergency meeting. Iraq accused Turkey of the attack on a resort in Kurdistan’s Duhok Province, but Ankara denied responsibility.
“Turkey disregards Iraq’s demands to stop the violations against Iraq’s sovereignty and disrespects the principle of good neighborliness,” the Iraqi ministerial council said in a statement. Iraq has demanded that Turkey apologize for the attack and withdraw its forces from Iraqi territories.
The ministerial council also decided to delay the assignment of a new ambassador to Turkey and to file a complaint with the UN Security Council over the attack.
Turkey regularly carries out attacks on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU.