Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi was given a special reception in Ankara last week, including a spectacular dinner complete with Iraqi music. The Dec. 17 visit, which took place after recurring bilateral tensions and no less than four invitations by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ended in an optimistic mood, with Turkey’s ambassador to Iraq asserting how both sides were happy with the talks. Yet the main irritant in bilateral ties — the presence of Turkish Kurd militants on Iraqi soil — remains unchanged and may even grow down the road.

During the talks, the Turkish side raised strategic projects such as a second border crossing between the two neighbors, the reopening of the oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, a railroad between the two countries and a highway from the Iraqi border city of Zakho to the Persian Gulf. Though Kadhimi said nothing about those projects at the joint press conference, he spoke of collaborating with Turkey in the reconstruction of Iraq. 

Erdogan said the two sides agreed to sustain efforts against “common enemies” such as the Islamic State (IS) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the armed group that has fought Ankara since 1984, using rear bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Without naming the PKK, Kadhimi said that Baghdad would not tolerate any group threatening Turkey from Iraqi soil and pledged continued efforts against terrorist groups destabilizing the region. He cited as an example the October deal between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan on the administration of Sinjar, which, Turkey hopes, would lead to the PKK’s removal from the Yazidi-populated region.

Yet the details that have emerged since the visit suggest that no real breakthrough was achieved on the main sticking points in bilateral ties. The chronic water-sharing dispute over the Euphrates and Tigris rivers remains unchanged and Turkey’s cross-border military operations against the PKK continue to strain the relationship.