Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks in Erbil on Monday with several Kurdish officials on his first visit to the region since a failed independence referendum in 2017 that strained ties with Ankara.
His discussions focused on bolstering security and trade relations.
He held closed-door meetings with the officials from the Iraqi Turkmen Front. Talks focused on Turkmen living in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Cavusoglu stressed that Ankara will continue to push for Turkmen to obtain their rights in Iraq seeing as they make up the third largest minority in the country.
The minister then met with Kurdistan intelligence chief Masrour Barzani, who could potentially be tasked with forming a new Kurdistan government. He then met with President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani. He concluded his visit by holding talks with Qubad Talabani, a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Informed sources said that talks also focused on efforts to confront the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has led an insurgency against Turkey and is based on the border between Iraq, Iran and Turkey.
A senior member of Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party, Abdulsalam Brawri revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Cavusoglu’s trip was aimed at finding alternatives to Iranian oil in wake of Washington’s decision to halt exemptions on its export.
Moreover, he said that Ankara was also seeking to invest in efforts to reconstruct Iraq.
Cavusoglu had arrived in Erbil after holding talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad.
During the visit he unveiled plans to reopen consulates in Mosul and Basra and to establish new ones in Kirkuk and Najaf.
The minister also announced that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would pay a visit to Iraq before the end of the year.
