BAGHDAD, April 22 (Reuters) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that relations between Turkey and Iraq were entering a new phase after the two countries agreed to strengthen economic ties and cooperate against Kurdish fighters of the PKK.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the first visit by a Turkish leader to Iraq since 2011.
Ankara regularly carries out air operations against PKK bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, operations denounced by Baghdad as violations of its sovereignty. Relations between the two neighbors have been particularly tense in recent years.
“I share my conviction that the presence of the PKK in Iraq will end. We discussed the measures that we could take together to counter the PKK terrorist organization and its extensions which attack Turkey,” declared the Turkish president during a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Chia al-Soudani in Baghdad.
The two countries will work together to strengthen security at their common border and against non-state armed groups that could work with terrorist organizations, said Mohammed Chia al-Soudani, without mentioning the PKK.
According to an Iraqi government spokesperson, PKK members are welcome in Iraq as long as they do not engage in political activism or carry weapons.
Turkey plans to launch a new offensive against Kurdish separatists in the coming months and hopes to obtain cooperation from the Iraqi authorities, who it also expects to recognize that the PKK constitutes a threat to its security.
In addition to security, more than twenty memorandums of understanding were signed during Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit in sectors such as culture, agriculture, the energy sector, while the oil sector of the Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region already transits through Turkey.
Baghdad launched a $17 billion development project last year that aims to place Iraq at the center of trade between Asia and Europe, including the idea of transporting oil between the giant port of Al Faw, in the south of the country, and Turkey.
In return, Iraq wants to obtain a higher quota of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their source in Turkey and represent the main supply of fresh water to the country hit by a serious drought. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Can Sezer in Istanbul and Tuvan Gumrucku in Ankara, written by Timour Azhari in Beirut; French version Tangi Salaün and Zhifan Liu, editing by Sophie Louet)