ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will visit Iraq on Sunday for talks with officials on the fight against Kurdish militants, security issues and bilateral ties, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Saturday.
Ties between the neighbours have been rocky in recent years due to Ankara’s cross-border military operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants based in northern Iraq’s mountainous regions.
However, they have improved since Baghdad labelled the group a “banned organisation” last year and the countries agreed to hold high-level security talks.
Fidan’s visit comes amid repeated calls from Turkey for the Kurdish YPG militia in northeastern Syria to disband following the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month, with Ankara warning of a new incursion unless its concerns are addressed.
The YPG spearheads the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey deems them terrorists that are an extension of the PKK, which the West also considers a terrorist organisation.
The source said Fidan would meet Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, and other Iraqi officials during the visit, adding he would repeat Ankara’s expectation for Iraq to label the PKK a terrorist organisation and remove it from its lands.
Fidan will emphasise the need for regional countries “to act together against this terrorist organisation’s attempts to gain legitimacy and ground,” the source said, with bilateral ties and trade also be on the agenda.
On Thursday, Hussein said Turkey attacking Kurdish forces in northern Syria would be dangerous and create more refugees.
Since Assad’s toppling by an administration friendly towards Ankara, Syria’s Kurdish factions have been on the back foot, and negotiators from the United States, Turkey, Damascus and the SDF have been zeroing in on a potential deal on the group’s fate.
Fidan’s visit also comes amid a domestic political effort to end the decades-old conflict between Turkey and the PKK.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Comments