Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today snubbed Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s criticism of the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq ahead of a planned operation to retake Mosul city, asking him to “know your place.”
“He is insulting me personally. You are not my interlocutor, you are not at my level,” Erdogan told a meeting in Istanbul, in comments addressed to Abadi. “It’s not important at all how you shout from Iraq. You should know that we will do what we want to do,” he added. “Who’s thatIJ The Iraqi prime minister. First you know your place!” Turkey has said its troops would remain in Iraq despite Baghdad’s growing anger ahead of a planned operation to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS) group.