Iraq keen to develop relations with Turkey, rejects its interference in its internal affairs, MP says

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A Member of the State of Law Alliance, led by Prime Minister, Nouri al-Malliki, has said on Thursday that Iraq was keen on building good relations with Turkey, despite its refusal of Turkish interferences in the Iraqi Affairs. “The recent statements by Turkey‘s Prime Minister and and the Foreign Minister are not accepted, because they represent an interference in the Iraqi affairs, and those statements looked as if they were bias to a certain bloc or sectarian gathering,” Legislature Sami al-Askary told IraqiNews.com news agency. “We are keen on our good relations with Turkey, but our relations with the world states are based on joint respect and non-interference in (Iraq‘s) internal affairs,” Askary said. Iraq‘s Foreign Ministry had summoned the Turkish Ambassador to Baghdad last Monday and informed him Iraqs anxiety towards the recent statements by Turkish officials, according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry’s website. On his part, the Turkish Ambassador to Baghdad said: “the statements, issued by Turkish officials had been stemmed from a good intention,” adding that he would inform the Ankara government with the position of the Iraqi side, according to a Foreign Ministry source. Turkey‘s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Ardogan, had stated that “those who try to ignite fire of tension and division in Iraq and are working to prepare a fertile platform for sectarian conflicts, must be reminded by Yezid (the Amovite Caliph who ordered the killing of Imam Hussein Bin-Ali),” adding that “the state that shares in creating the sectarian conflicts in Iraq shall be responsible, at the same time, for every drop of blood that is shed on the Iraqi land.