Kurdish stamp commemorating pope's visit to Erbil fans Turkish conspiracy fears
Ankara is furious over a commemorative stamp design featuring a map of Iraqi Kurdistan that includes chunks of Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast provinces.
Turkey lashed out at Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Wednesday over its plans to print a commemorative stamp to mark Pope Francis’ March 7 visit to Erbil, the last leg of his historic tour of Iraq.
Ankara went bananas because the stamp featured a map of Iraqi Kurdistan that included chunks of Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast provinces with the pontiff’s profile partially covering it. “Certain presumptuous authorities in the KRG dared to abuse the [pope’s visit] to express their unrealistic aspirations against the territorial integrity of Iraq’s neighboring countries. KRG authorities are in the best position to remember the disappointing outcomes of such deceitful aims,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, demanding that KRG officials immediately rectify the “mistake.”
Ankara was referring to the Iraqi Kurds’ 2017 referendum on independence, which drew fierce reactions from Baghdad, Turkey and Iran and led to the Kurds’ losing control of Kirkuk when Iraqi troops drove out their peshmerga forces from the oil-rich province.
