ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region, will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, according to the Turkish presidency.
Barzani will meet Erdogan in Ankara at 2:00 pm, according to the Turkish presidency’s published schedule.
"After the successful visit of the president of the Kurdistan Region to Baghdad, meeting [French] President Macron and the Iraqi leaders... there was an official invitation from the president of the Republic of Turkey for him to visit Ankara," Falah Mustafa, foreign policy advisor to Barzani, told Rudaw from Ankara.
Macron was in Baghdad for a few hours this week, holding meetings with the Iraqi and Kurdish leadership.
Barzani began his visit to Ankara with a breakfast meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. They discussed enhancing trade, relations between Erbil and Baghdad, and the COVID-19 virus.
"The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and its implications on Turkey's and the Kurdistan Region's economies were discussed in the meeting. In this regard, the foreign minister of Turkey showed their willingness to aid the Kurdistan Region by dispatching medical supplies to combat the epidemic," read a statement from the Kurdistan Region Presidency.
Cavusoglu said they also discussed the "joint fight against the PKK," according to Anadolu Agency, referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
In Barzani’s meeting with Erdogan, they will discuss "mutual relations between the Republic of Turkey and the Kurdistan Region and how to improve them,” said Mustafa.
“There is no doubt that as two countries, Iraq and Turkey, and the Kurdistan Region as part of Iraq, we think we must maintain good neighborly relations on the basis of mutual interests and mutual understanding,” he said.
Turkey is an important trade partner for the Kurdistan Region and Erbil enjoys good relations with Ankara. This summer, however, there is a lot of public anger among Kurds because of Turkey’s military incursion against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) within Kurdistan Region borders.
Turkey has pursued the PKK in the Kurdistan Region for decades, but its campaign this summer is pushing into populated areas, just kilometres away from major urban centres. At least eight civilians have been killed in Turkish airstrikes and tens of villages have been emptied.
Baghdad and Erbil have both condemned Turkey’s violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and have also called on the PKK to cease its activities.
The PKK is an armed Kurdish group that has fought for greater political and cultural rights in Turkey for decades.
Updated at 2:59 pm
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