Iraqi Kurds fear fallout from Erdogan-Gulen conflict
Some Iraqi Kurds are worried that the potential fall of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan might result in a reversal of good relations between Erbil and Ankara.
ERBIL, Iraq — The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) has had a blossoming political and economic relationship with Turkey since 2009. After the Arab Spring, KRG President Massoud Barzani became one of the few friends Turkey has left in the region. With rising internal problems in Turkey amid upcoming elections, Iraqi Kurds wonder about the future of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The open war between former allies — Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Fethullah Gulen community — is also affecting the Kurdistan region. The Gulen community operates 18 schools in Iraqi Kurdistan with approximately 5,000 students, many coming from the Kurdish elites.
Pro-AKP media accused the Gulen movement of running spying centers in Iraqi Kurdistan that tapped the phones of pro-AKP Turkish businessmen who insulted Kurds while signing business deals with the KRG for $1 billion, according to Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) MP Altan Tan in the Turkish parliament. “And Massoud Barzani, if you let these two ignoble people to win those contracts, shame on Kurdistan and shame on you!” he said.
The KRG quickly denied the existence of Gulen spying cells in Kurdistan and denied reports by Gulen media that Erdogan asked KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to close their schools. “We haven’t received such a request,” said Falah Mustafa Bakir, KRG’s foreign minister, to Al-Monitor.
