ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq and Turkey will hold their fourth high-level security meeting next week, the Turkish foreign minister announced on Friday, as Ankara’s war with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) continues to threaten village life in northern Duhok province.
“The work of the high-level planning group between the two countries continues, especially after 27 agreements were signed” during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Iraq in April, Minister Hakan Fidan said during a press conference with Montenegro's Foreign Minister Ervin Ibrahimovic in Istanbul, the state-owned Anadolu Agency reported.
“Next week, this group will come together again, and ministers from Iraq and ministers from Turkey will meet in Turkey,” Fidan added.
The two have already had three similar meetings.
Erdogan’s rare visit to Iraq took Ankara-Baghdad relations to another stage, primarily in relation to their security cooperation. Since then, Iraq has taken several actions against the PKK, including banning the group and closing three political parties with alleged ties to it.
Fidan said that the delegations will review decisions they have so far taken. “I think this sets an example for us to conduct our work on an institutional and sensitive basis with countries we value,” he said.
Turkey began intensifying its decades-long war against the PKK in Duhok province in mid-June after Erdogan repeatedly said he would launch a new offensive this summer. Ankara has deployed hundreds of troops to the province.
The federal government in Baghdad and the regional one in Erbil have remained largely quiet about Turkey’s military incursions and the devastation the conflict has inflicted on the civilian population and the environment.
