ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Iraq on Monday for a visit marking the first of its kind in 13 years, heralding a new chapter between the two neighbors as they increase their cooperation amid simmering instabilities in the region.
Erdogan is expected to meet Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani during his daylong visit, which will also take him to Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region. Erdogan and Sudani are also set to hold a joint press conference. In Erbil, the Turkish president is slated to meet Kurdistan Regional Government President Nechirvan Barzani, as well as other Iraqi Kurdish officials.
Iraqi government spokesperson Bassem al-Awadi described the visit as a “major starting point in Iraqi-Turkish relations,” listing the two issues that would dominate the talks as cooperation on security and the long-standing water-sharing dispute between the two capitals.
“The two nations are also expected to sign more than 20 cooperation deals, including those in the fields of security and energy, during the visit,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Sunday.
The visit comes after the Iraqi government, in a surprising move, acceded to the long-standing Turkish demand in March by banning the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Headquartered in the northern Iraqi mountains, the outlawed militants have been fighting for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey since the early 1980s and are considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
The last time Erdogan visited Iraq was in 2011.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
