It's no secret that there is little love lost between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. They have exchanged barbs and insults and accused each other of stoking sectarian divisions in the region along the age-old Sunni-Shiite fault line.
Events, however, are forcing a new evaluation in Ankara and Baghdad of bilateral ties. A recent spate of high-level visits is being taken by diplomats as a sign that the sides are trying to patch up differences for a host of pragmatic reasons.