Ma friend, nothing come free in geopolitics. Smart foreign policy doesnt rely on love, shared history and so on, those are soft power intruments and can come handy, but w/0 making yourself (country) indispensible to your counterpart you are courting in pursuing its own interests, soft power will not get you much. Sure, Turkey may offer its expertise and help in this sector, but it also seeks by moves like this to deepen its ties with Baghdad, project certain postive/trusting image to the gov and wider political elite and the ppl, and also makes sure that this issue doesnt became a catalist which it certanly has a potential to be if not resolved for a disaster in terms of Iraqi stability, which isnt in Turkish interest. In hardly serves Turkey for Iraq to become a failed state, or find itself in another civilit war, or major unrest in which gruops like ISIS and PKK thrive. They didnt try to blow up oil pipline close to Mosul which connects with Turkey the other day for the hack of it, but to undermine economic-social turkey-iraq relations. Iraq needs that pipline, so does Turkey, its a great showcase how such projects reap benefits for both. You v seen in recent months Iraq isupport for turkish opps, even younger Barzani and his party slammed PKK in public.. There are a lots of things that go into such decision, diplomacy and common sense is the first choice... this is not school yard shit, where nuance, diplomacy, strategic thinking ahead, isnt tool in the box.
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on the mashriq front, some interesting stuff
Libya has outsized importance for Turkey's Mediterranean plans
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/or...-libya-means-beyond-a-country-for-ankara.html
yes, I know its Al Monitor, and they had their share of lousy, missed and questioneble contributors. But this one is I think on point. Ignore islamist and other thropes. gist of it is on point. So, besides doing whats is right, supporting UN recognized gov - which was btw prepairing itself for UN sponspored peace talks when the offensive started - against a wanabe dictator like Haftar is moral thing to do. There is also more political and military dimension for the support.
@Bismarck I know you were suspicious of that claim when it came about recently. But after the fog is clearing, those claims about French active participation un Tripoli offensive and their backing of a fucking warlord dont look so shady now.
