Military

Turkish Embassy

Address 2/8 Waziriyah Baghdad
Phone (964-1) 222 00 21- 22
Fax (964-1) 222 83 53
Telex (0491) 214145 TUREM IK

The Turkish Embassy and Residence building in Baghdad was renovated after being damaged during the Gulf War.

The Turkish embassy has been fortified with with long steel rods cast into cement blocks holding razor wire some 20 feet out from the compound walls. The embassy stands a few houses away from the Jordanian Embassy, which was destroyed by a car bomb attack on 07 August 2003.

In January 2001 Turkey began to upgrade its diplomatic and economic ties with Iraq, which had been severed within the scope of UN-sanctioned international embargo. Turkey also decided to re-activate the Turkish embassy in Baghdad. The embargo on Iraq caused a considerable degree of damage to the Turkish economy, especially through the closure of a major oil pipeline carrying Iraqi petroleum to Turkey's Mediterranean coasts.

Between April and early October 2003 the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad had been targeted by unknown assailants on three occasions. On 15 April 2003 a group of armed bandits vandalised the Turkish embassy in Baghdad. The building was damaged by automatic gunfire although the gang were then forced to retreat by security guards. While almost no building in Baghdad escaped the looting that ravaged the city after its fall to US forces, the Turkish Embassy was protected. In August 2003 Turkey granted Turkish citizenship to three Palestinian brothers and three friends of them who protected the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad in the looting after the war erupted. Turkey also handed money to the six guards. The Turkish Embassy in Baghdad was sprayed with bullets fired at long range from a passing car on the night of 14 August 2003, but no one was killed or injured. The early October attack came only hours after Turkey approved the troops motion. In early October 2003 the Turkish parliament passed a motion to empower the government to dispatch troops to Iraq on Tuesday. On the same day, the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) issued a statement that it does not want troops from neighbouring countries on its soil.

On 14 October 2003 a suicide bomber detonated a car-bomb near the Turkish Embassy, wounding at least two people. The attack followed Iraqi anger over Turkish plans to deploy troops into Iraq. The latest in a series of bombings, it came two days after a car-bomb exploded near the Baghdad Hotel, home to US officials and members of the Iraqi Governing Council. At least eight people including the bomber were killed in that earlier attack.

Turkish Embassy, Baghdad
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Nima Map showing west Baghdad where the Embassy is located	Overview of West Baghdad Digital Globe imagery taken 3 November 2002
Overview of Turkish Embassy neighborhood	Close up of Turkish Embassy