As competition heats up among rival Iraqi Kurdish factions for the country’s presidency, regional power Turkey appeared to signal its preference by extending an ongoing ban on flights to Sulaimaniyah, where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) holds sway.

Tahir Abdullah, the official in charge of Sulaimaniyah airport, told the Iraqi Kurdish news portal Rudaw that the ban imposed in the wake of the Iraqi Kurds’ referendum on independence that was held a year ago would remain in effect until Dec. 24. Ankara had also halted flights to Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s capital, in keeping with the Iraqi central government’s ban on flights to the Kurdish region because of the referendum.

Baghdad allowed air travel to the region to resume in March. Ankara, however, continues to block flights to Sulaimaniyah. Turkey has not formally commented on any of the candidates for the Iraqi presidency, a largely ceremonial post that is traditionally allotted to the Kurds.

But sources familiar with Turkey’s Iraq policy said that Ankara was opposed to the PUK’s candidate Barham Salih, the urbane former deputy prime minister of Iraq who moves as easily in Tehran as he does in Washington and Baghdad and is acclaimed for founding and building the American University of Iraq Sulaimani into one of Iraq’s most prestigious academic institutions.