Turkey declares its readiness to train Iraqi soldiers

Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz during a trip to Baghdad said that Turkey has proposed training and equipping Iraqi Army soldiers.

"We are training peshmerga forces and began the train-and-equip program run in cooperation with the United States for Syrian opposition forces. We told the Iraqi authorities that the same applications can be applied also to the Iraqi armed forces," RIA Novosti cited Yilmaz.

According to him, Iraq’s stability means stability for Turkey too. In addition, the Defense Minister said that this is a difficult period for Iraq, as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Daesh, controls one-third of the country, but Turkey "will stand by the Iraqi government and people in the legitimate struggle against terrorism".

According to Yilmaz, Turkey had reached an agreement with Iraq to create a joint military technical committee in order to meet the needs of Iraqi army as soon as possible. "Khaled al-Obeidi requested Turkey’s humanitarian aid for those that will be forced to be replaced inside Iraq. We clearly stated that we will offer our help," the Minister concluded.