Erdogan’s visit is conditional on its implementation.. Türkiye presents “thorny and complex” request

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[size=52]Erdogan’s visit is conditional on its implementation.. Türkiye presents “thorny and complex” requests to Baghdad[/size]

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Today, Friday (August 25, 2023), an official in the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, did not reach final understandings between Iraq and Turkey regarding files, which he described as thorny and complex.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi official, who requested anonymity, added, in a press statement, that "Turkish President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan's visit to Iraq, which is expected next month, is linked to Iraq's response to what Fidan offered."[/size]
[size=45]Fidan had arrived in Baghdad, last Tuesday, on a two-day visit, during which he met a large number of government officials and political leaders in the country.[/size]
[size=45]The Turkish minister’s talks with Iraqi leaders included the water file of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, security cooperation to track down ISIS cells and remnants, and the development road project linking the ports of Basra on the waters of the Arabian Gulf and Turkish lands, which Baghdad and Turkey consider necessary as a shortcut to Europe and an important commercial link between the two regions ( Arabian Gulf and Turkey), via a railway and a land road that reach more than 1,200 km.[/size]
[size=45]The official added, "Turkey calls on Iraq to classify the PKK as a terrorist organization, and to work to prevent the use of Iraqi lands to carry out armed attacks inside Turkish territory."[/size]
[size=45]He said that Fidan “provided documents and aerial photographs to Iraqi officials showing how the Kurdistan militants moved from inside Iraq to Turkey and carried out attacks, and their armed activities in Qandil, Makhmur, Sidekan, Zab and areas in Sulaymaniyah, in which he said they are sponsored by Kurdish political parties, in reference to the Union The Kurdistan Patriotic Movement, led by Pavel Talabani.[/size]
[size=45]According to the same official, “Turkey considers itself a party not concerned with the oil dispute between Baghdad and Erbil, as a result of which a lawsuit was filed in Paris by the former Iraqi government, given that the oil of the Kurdistan region is being exported through Turkish territory to the port of Ceyhan for export.”[/size]
[size=45]Fidan demanded that Turkey not bear any financial consequences in this file in return for approving the resumption of oil exports, pointing out that Turkey has shown flexibility in the issue of helping Iraq overcome the water scarcity crisis by increasing the pumping of water through the Tigris River.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi official stated that Turkey is waiting for "an Iraqi response to the requests that were presented during the coming period, specifically the PKK file and the resumption of oil exports, in return for proceeding with Erdogan's visit, which is supposed to be to sign final agreements on these files."[/size]
[size=45]Kurdistan workers' party[/size]
[size=45]According to official statements issued by the Iraqi and Turkish sides, the two sides discussed the files of the PKK and its presence inside Iraq, and the threat it poses to Turkish national security, as well as the file of resuming the export of Iraqi oil through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, which has been suspended for several months, against the background of the decision of the arbitral tribunal in the Chamber of Commerce. International Court in Paris, which ruled in favor of Iraq in its dispute with Turkey regarding Ankara’s permission to export the oil of the Kurdistan region, without Baghdad’s approval, and the court ruled that Turkey be fined more than one and a half billion dollars.[/size]
[size=45]Regarding Baghdad's expected response, the Iraqi official said, "The Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia' al-Sudani, made a series of contacts with Iraqi political and official leaders, most notably the President of the Republic, Abdul Latif Rashid, and Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, to seek support in reaching understandings with Turkey regarding the outstanding issues." It is expected that Iraq will soon "deal with the issue of the Workers' Party in Sinjar and Makhmur, through security and other political measures, as Al-Sudani supports not sacrificing the relationship with Turkey because of the Workers' Party file."[/size]
[size=45]Baghdad has not yet issued any clear position on the PKK file, with the exception of a statement issued by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, last Wednesday, after the meeting of Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein with his Turkish counterpart, in which it stated that “the Iraqi constitution does not allow any organization to use Iraq as a launching pad for attacking neighboring countries.”[/size]
[size=45]The presence of the PKK, which Ankara classifies as a “terrorist organization,” in Iraqi territory causes many political crises between the two countries, the most recent of which was last year when Baghdad accused Turkish forces of bombing a tourist resort in Dohuk, and causing the death of a number of citizens, which Ankara denied.[/size]
[size=45]The difficulty of making full understandings between the Baghdad government and its Turkish counterpart regarding ending the presence of Hezbollah militants in Iraq lies in several military field factors. The most prominent of which is its presence in areas that are difficult for the Iraqi forces to reach, within the Iraqi-Iranian-Turkish triangle, which is under the administration of the Kurdistan Region, in addition to the support that the party’s militants receive from armed factions that are usually described as allies of Iran, especially in the areas of Sinjar, west of Nineveh.[/size]
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