Abdul-Mahdi and Erdogan discuss 'decisive' action against PKK

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi visited Turkey on Wednesday, halfway through a deadly month of clashes between the Kurdistan Workers' Party and Turkish forces within Iraq's borders. Security was high on the agenda in his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which Iraqi-Turkey relations were "evaluated in all dimensions," Erdogan said in a joint press conference.

The Iraqi Prime Minister issued a "rejection" of the use of "Iraqi soil" to launch attacks on Turkey, in reference to the PKK-Turkey clashes in the Kurdistan Region that have intensified in recent days  -  a reiteration of the stance he took at his weekly press conference in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Abdul-Mahdi said the struggle against the "terror groups" of Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Islamic State) and the PKK must be "decisive". 

Among the developments made was the signing of a military cooperation agreement. Abdul-Mahdi said the agreement actually dated back to 2008 and  had not been "activated", but that now was an important time to do so. Erdogan said that he had authorized for the ministries of "defense, military affairs and security" to meet with their counterparts in Baghdad as a next step.

Abdul-Mahdi described Iraq as "stable and secure" with the Islamic State reduced to working in isolated "sleeper cells", where they must not be given any opportunity to be "rebuild" - remarks that come despite the apparent resurgence of IS in the town of Makhmour. 

During the joint press conference, both leaders emphasized the constancy of Turkey's support for Iraq. According to Abdul-Mahdi, Turkey has "always been on Iraq's side", assisting Iraq in combating terrorism and hosting Iraqi refugees. Erdogan discussed previous assistance to Iraq with regards to water, citing the "support" it gave during droughts over the last few years.

Water has been a point of contention for the two countries for years.  Turkey has been building a series of dams as part of the infrastructurally major Southeastern Anatolia Project, significantly decreasing available water levels in downstream Iraq.

Among the solutions proposed by Erdogan was the sharing of expertise surrounding irrigation technologies and the construction of dams so that the water Turkey "gives" to Iraq can be saved. He also announced the production of an action plan for water strategy in Iraq by a 50-person working group, led by special presidential envoy to Iraq Veysel Eroglu, that will visit Iraq imminently. 

 

Both Erdogan and Abdul-Mahdi underlined their discussions on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline that transports Iraqi oil to Turkey. Iraq has been planning to increase output from Kirkuk oilfields since the resumption of crude exports from the province in November 2018. The pipeline had been shut for a year due to disputes between the central Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and its output still pales in comparison to 2017 levels, a deficiency Turkey has repeatedly expressed a desire to rectify.