Erdogan claims Turkish troops in Qatar are for stability
Turkey’s military presence in Qatar is to ensure peace in the region and should not be a cause for alarm, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday after a visit to the Gulf state.
Mr Erdogan held talks with the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim, in Doha on Wednesday after visiting Kuwait to offer condolences on the death of Sheikh Sabah, who had ruled the country since 2006.
“The presence of Turkish troops in Qatar is to ensure peace and stability, not only for Qatar but also for the Gulf region,” Mr Erdogan was quoted as saying by Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
Ankara signed a security agreement with Qatar in 2015 and started sending troops there in June 2017 after fellow Gulf states Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, along with Egypt, announced a boycott of Doha over its interference in their internal affairs, its support for terrorist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its ties to Iran.
Mr Erdogan said no party should be bothered by Turkey’s military presence in Qatar “except for those seeking to spread chaos”, TRT reported.
Turkey’s president said last November that a Turkish military base built near Doha as part of the security agreement was complete and hosted about 5,000 troops.
Qatar also hosts the largest US military base in the region, Al Udeid Airbase, which is home to about 8,000 US service members and civilian Department of Defence employees.
Doha recently submitted a formal request to the US to buy the F-35 stealth fighter jets, Reuters reported.
However, the sale of the advanced warplanes must satisfy a decades-old agreement with Israel that states any US weapons sold to the region must not impair Israel’s “qualitative military edge”.
The US State Department said it could not discuss such matters until they were put before Congress, which must approve all major defence sales.
The Qatari embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment, Reuters said.
A source said that arms sales to Qatar frequently raised concerns about its links to Hamas, but in the case of the F-35 it could be a deal breaker.
The US last year blocked the sale of F-35 jets to Turkey, a Nato ally, in response to Ankara’s decision to buy the S-400 missile defence system from Russia.
Turkey also angered western allies and Arab states with its regional actions, including military interventions in northern Iraq and the civil wars in Syria and in Libya, where Ankara and Doha have given military support to the government in Tripoli despite widespread international condemnation.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s parliament approved the extension of Ankara’s military operations in northern Syria and in northern Iraq until October 30 next year. Turkey says US-backed Kurdish militias in northern Syria are linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.
The PKK, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and several European countries, maintains bases in northern Iraq.
Ankara signed a security agreement with Qatar in 2015 and started sending Turkish troops there in June 2017