Turkish President makes first official go to to Iraq in over a decade

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first official go to in additional than a decade as Ankara seeks larger cooperation from Baghdad in its struggle towards a Kurdish militant group that has a foothold in Iraq.

Different points additionally loom massive between the 2 nations, together with water provide and exports of oil and fuel from northern Iraq to Turkey, halted for greater than a yr.

TURKEY’S ERDOGAN FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE AFTER SHOCK ELECTION LOSSES EXPERT SAYS

Erdogan, whose final go to to Baghdad was in 2011, when he was prime minister, met with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as they inked agreements on water administration, safety, power and financial cooperation.

“I consider that my go to and the agreements simply signed will represent a brand new turning level in Turkey-Iraq relations,” Erdoğan stated in a joint information convention with al-Sudani.

Al-Sudani stated they mentioned “bilateral safety coordination, which can meet the wants of each events and confront the challenges posed by the presence of armed parts that will cooperate with terrorism and violate the safety of the 2 nations.”

Erdoğan’s go to “comes at a delicate and harmful time,” al-Sudani added, citing Israel’s warfare towards the Hamas militant group in Gaza — a warfare that has had ripple results throughout the area.

Erdoğan stated the leaders had “consulted on the joint steps we are able to take towards the PKK terrorist group and its extensions, which goal Turkey from Iraqi territory,” referring to the Kurdistan Staff’ Social gathering, or PKK, a Kurdish separatist motion banned in Turkey.

The PKK has maintained bases in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish area.

Erdoğan had beforehand introduced a significant operation towards the PKK through the summer time, with the purpose of “completely” eradicating the menace it poses. He didn’t specify what actions Turkish forces would soak up Iraq however Turkish forces have prior to now carried out quite a few floor offensives towards PKK in northern Iraq and Turkish jets regularly goal suspected PKK websites.

Ankara now goals to create a 19-25 mile deep safety hall alongside the joint border with Iraq, Turkish Protection Minister Yasar Guler informed journalists final month.

The insurgency — the PKK is combating for an autonomous Kurdish state in southeast Turkey — has claimed tens of 1000’s of lives for the reason that Nineteen Eighties and Turkey and its Western allies have labelled PKK a terrorist group.

Baghdad has lengthy complained that Turkish actions in Iraq towards the PKK violate its sovereignty, however seems to be acquiescing with Ankara’s operations.

In March, after a gathering between the Iraqi and Turkish international ministers, Baghdad introduced that the Iraqi Nationwide Safety Council had issued a ban on the PKK, though it stopped in need of designating it as a terrorist group. Erdoğan on Monday praised the ban.

Al-Sudani informed journalists throughout a go to to Washington final week that Iraq and Turkey have “true pursuits with each other and customary tasks.” He famous that the PKK has lengthy had a presence in northern Iraq, “however we aren’t permitting any armed group to be on Iraqi territory and utilizing it as a launchpad for assaults.”

Ankara has argued that PKK’s presence in Iraq threatens the deliberate building of a significant commerce route, the Iraq Growth Street, that will join the port in Basra, southern Iraq, to Turkey and Europe by means of a community of rail traces and highways.

Baghdad might take the same method to the PKK because it has taken to Iranian Kurdish dissident teams primarily based in northern Iraq.

The presence of Iranian dissidents had change into a degree of pressure with Tehran, which periodically launches airstrikes on their bases in Iraq. Final summer time, Iran and Iraq reached an settlement to disarm the teams and relocate their members from navy bases to displacement camps.

Power points and water rights are additionally key in Iraq-Turkey ties.

An oil pipeline operating from the semiautonomous Kurdish area to Turkey has been shut down since March 2023, after an arbitration courtroom ruling ordered Ankara to pay Iraq $1.5 billion for oil exports that bypassed Iraq’s central authorities in Baghdad. The sharing of oil and fuel revenues has lengthy been a contentious situation between Baghdad and Kurdish authorities in Irbil.

Lately, Iraqi officers have complained that dams constructed by Turkey are decreasing Iraq’s water provide.

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which give most of Iraq’s contemporary water, originate in Turkey. Specialists concern that local weather change is more likely to exacerbate present water shortages in Iraq, with probably devastating penalties.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Mustafa Hassan, a Baghdad resident, stated he hopes that Erdoğan’s go to “will assist to resolve issues associated to water, as a result of Iraq is affected by a water shortage disaster, and this impacts agriculture.”

Erdoğan stated Ankara was conscious of the water issues Iraq faces and that the 2 nations have arrange “a joint everlasting committee which goes to assist by means of cooperation … taking our shared pursuits into consideration.”