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Turkey returns to balance in Baghdad, KRG ties

Turkey is flirting with Baghdad while dancing with Erbil.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) shakes hands with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari after a news conference in Ankara October 25, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX14NP6
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The collapse of Turkey’s "zero problems with neighbors" policy could be traced back to Ankara’s efforts to bring the Sunnis to power following the Iraqi elections of 2010. The Baghdad-Ankara link was severed by Turkey's developing strategic relations with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over the past three years; granting refuge to former Iranian Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who is sought by Interpol; Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s "unauthorized” visit to Kirkuk; the denial of permission for the Turkish energy minister’s plane to fly to Erbil and conflicting policies in the Syria crisis. Our Orient Express finally went off the rails and crashed in Syria.

Now the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is working back to repair the collapse. As part of plans to bring Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Turkey to make a fresh start, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshar Zebari was received in Ankara. Then, Davutolgu paid a two-day visit to Iraq to discuss the details of the proposed Maliki visit. Symbolic dimensions were added to the visit by Maliki remarking, “We want good relations based on common interests, mutual respect and non-intervention in domestic affairs.” Davutoglu, as if to wash his hands of the Sunni-Shiite tension stimulated by the proxy war in Syria, went to Najaf, the Shiite stronghold, to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadr movement. Davutoglu, in Shiite mourning attire, then visited the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf and Imam Hussein in Karbala, saying, “May Allah bless us by allowing us to walk in the footsteps of Imam Hussein.”

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