In the statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "We invite the authorities of the Iraqi government not to make statements under the influence of the discourse and propaganda of the treacherous terrorist organization PKK, and to cooperate to reveal the real perpetrators of this tragic incident."
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who was the guest of a special interview of TRT Haber, made statements on the live broadcast and made evaluations on the agenda. Çavuşoğlu said, “Once again, we wish Almighty God's mercy on our 9 brothers who passed away, and we wish healing to the injured. We also said that we could bring the injured to Turkey if needed. There were also reports accusing and defaming Turkey about this attack. We have clearly denied this in our statement, or rather, the whole world knows that Turkey has never carried out a counter-attack against civilians. We continue our fight against terrorism in accordance with international law. As soon as this news came yesterday, of course, we will contact our relevant institutions. We consulted. According to the information we received from the Turkish Armed Forces, we did not have any attacks on civilians. Our target has been terrorist organizations in Syria. In Iraq, it has always been directed against terrorist organizations. We also announced that we could cooperate with the Iraqi authorities as a result of this treacherous attack, which we think was carried out by terrorist organizations. We would like to emphasize once again here. We reject the statements against Turkey before this smoke screen is lifted. We reject both authorized and unauthorized statements about Turkey.”
“IRAQ AUTHORITIES SHOULD NOT FALL INTO THIS TRAP”
Çavuşoğlu added, "These are also not true. While we say that Turkey will cooperate to enlighten from one side, such statements about Turkey are not correct. So far, we emphasize Iraq and even Syria, that is, all our neighbors, but especially two countries. I emphasize the two countries where we are fighting against terrorism. We strongly supported border and territorial integrity more than anyone else. At a time when our relations with Iraq are improving, at a time when our fight against terrorism is successful, the occurrence of such an event is also significant. This is actually an attempt or an attack to prevent Turkey's fight against terrorism. Iraqi authorities should not fall into this trap. Our explanation is pretty clear. Of course, we share the pain of the Iraqi people. 9 Iraqi citizens lost their lives. We also tell them that we always want to cooperate with Iraq in the fight against terrorism. We emphasize this in our statements. Daesh in Iraq has been cleared to a significant extent. However, unfortunately the existence of the PKK terrorist organization is extremely strong. Of course, it is not possible for us to accept the statement of the national security council meeting in Iraq yesterday. But in the end, they also admit that there is terrorism in their country. After all, it is necessary to clean up these terrorist organizations wherever they are. Turkey needs to be cleared. We need to clear it from Syria, we need to clear it from Iraq, and we are always in cooperation in this fight against terrorism. We are also ready to cooperate in clearing the PKK from this country, especially in Iraq, or to clear the country from the PKK.”