On October 26, Turkey’s Customs Minister Bulent Tufenkci told the Turkish Anadolu Agency that Ankara and Baghdad agreed to open a new border crossing in Ovaköy area north of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
“I had the impression that the Iraqi government agrees that there should be a second border gate,” Tufenkci said.
Tufenkci said that Tukey and Iraq will have to provide extra security measures because both ISIS and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are operating near Ovaköy area. However, the Turkish minister stressed that once these threats are addressed there will be no other obstacle for Turkey and Iraq.
The Iraqi Army already began advancing towards the Iraqi-Turkish border area north of Mosul. On October 26, the Iraqi Army secured Omar Khaled, Ain Uways, Al-Jazronia and Ahmad Agha villages only 20km away from the Iraqi-Turkish border.
During its advance, the Iraqi Army effectively cut off the road to the Suwaidia border crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border. The border crossing is run by the Kurdish Peshmerga force in Iraq, and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria.
Back on October 25, the Kurdistan Security Council said that the Iraqi Army is about to launch an attack to capture the Faysh Khabur border crossing north of the Suwaidia border crossing. Faysh Khabur is considered the last operational border crossing between the SDF and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Moreover, the US-led coalition mainly uses the Faysh Khabur border crossing to supply the SDF and its forces inside Syria.
While the US-led coalition could easily resupply its forces inside Syria by airplanes, the loss of the border crossing will likely have a catastrophic effect on the SDF.