President Barzani to participate in diplomatic forum in Turkey

Karwan Faidhi Dri

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani to participate in a diplomatic forum in Turkey’s southwestern province of Antalya on Thursday, attended by high-level officials from around the world. 

Taking place under the theme “Recording Diplomacy” on March 11-13, Antalya Diplomacy Forum will host “Heads of State and Government, Ministers, policy makers, diplomats, business leaders, academics, think-tankers and representatives of the youth and media,” the forum said on its website. 

President Barzani is listed among leaders who will attend the forum. He is expected to arrive in Antalya early Thursday. However, his office has not confirmed if he will participate in the event. 

Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein is also invited to the forum. 

Hemin Lihony, manager of Rudaw Digital, will also participate in the forum. 

Armenian foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, whose country had thorny relations with Turkey in the past, is invited to the forum as well. He said on Tuesday that he would attend the event. Both countries began normalizing their relations recently. 

The forum says it “presents an excellent platform for regional and global actors from the spheres of diplomacy, policy, and business to exchange ideas and address international challenges.”

Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers are attending the event as well. They are expected to meet on the sidelines of the forum - first high-level contact since the Russian-Ukrainian war in late February. According to Turkish state media, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will attend the meeting as well. 

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov arrived in Antalya late Wednesday, according to the Rudaw reporter in the city. 

President Barzani last visited Turkey on February 2, meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

"The meeting focused on bilateral relations of Turkey with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, reaffirming the mutual willingness to further strengthen the important commercial and economic ties between the two sides," read a statement from Barzani’s office at the time. 

Erdogan later told reporters that his country seeks a win-win deal to export natural gas from Iraq, adding that Barzani had promised him in the trip to facilitate talks. 

Ankara and Erbil enjoy great economic relations, and most of the Kurdistan Region's crude oil is marketed through Turkey's pipelines.