Botched Mosul op could send refugee flood: Defense min.

By Leyla Ataman Koyuncuoglu

ANTALYA, Turkey (AA) – Around one million people could flood Turkey’s borders if an operation to retake Mosul, Iraq from Daesh terrorists is poorly executed, Turkey’s defense minister warned Tuesday.

Any offensive that is heedless of the city’s demographic structure and is poorly planned would set off a massive wave of would-be migrants to Turkey, Fikri Isik told reporters in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya.

Isik said coalition forces are planning an operation in the oil-rich city of Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa.

He said a badly planned offensive in the region would cause locals to immigrate to Turkey, “if they are not stopped in Iraq”.

A new refugee influx would be a very difficult burden for Turkey, he warned, as it already hosts around 3 million Syrian refugees, the most of any country in the world.

“It is a reality that if Turkey cannot carry [this burden], it will move on to Europe,” he added.

In mid-2014, the terrorist group Daesh captured Mosul, along with vast swathes of territory in the country's northern and western regions.

Recent months have seen the Iraqi army – backed by a 60-nation coalition led by the U.S. – to retake a great deal of territory from Daesh.

Nevertheless, Daesh remains in control of several parts of the country, including Mosul.

Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have recently captured a number of areas on the outskirts of Mosul, which Iraqi officials have vowed to recapture by year’s end.