Iraq, Turkey agree to cooperate on counterterrorism, trade
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi committed to enhanced cooperation on terrorism, trade and energy, although Turkey’s ongoing military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan may remain a source of contention between the two neighbors.
Turkey and Iraq pledged to cooperate against common terrorist threats and boost trade and energy ties Thursday during talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, on his first official visit to Turkey since taking office in May.
Speaking at a joint news conference, Erdogan said, “Regardless of their ethnicity or religion, be they Turkmens, Kurds, Arabs, Shiites or Sunnis, we see all the people of Iraq as our own brothers. There is no place for terrorism in the future of neither Turkey nor Iraq. Until terrorism is crushed there can be no peace in our region."
Kadhimi said, “Iraq’s position is very clear. There is no question of tolerating any organizations that threaten Turkey’s national security on our territory.” Both leaders were alluding to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Kurdish militant group based in northern Iraq that has been waging an armed campaign against the Turkish state since 1984.
Turkey’s ongoing military operations against the PKK within Iraq remain a source of contention between the two neighbors. Turkish airstrikes that have killed dozens of Iraqis, most of them Kurds, are an embarrassing infringement of Iraqi sovereignty that Baghdad appears powerless to prevent. Its repeated demands for Turkish troops to pull out of Bashiqa north of Mosul have also gone unheeded.
