It seems that Davutoğlu's visit was prompted both by the recent visits of Iraqi officials and politicians to Ankara and by the highly sensitive “Kurdish Initiative” that the government is trying to push forward.The government is understandably worried that a possible terrorist attack could undermine the whole initiative, strengthening the hands of the ultra-nationalist and pro-status quo opposition and diminishing public support for a stable, yet painful, solution to the 30-year-old conflict. Had Davutoğlu visited Baghdad in September as was originally planned, northern Iraq would have been included in the deliberations with regard to Turkey's will to open consulates in Arbil and Suleimaniya and Turkey's possible contribution to a solution to the verbal conflict between Arbil and Baghdad over oil and gas. The Turkish and Iraqi foreign ministers instead spoke about establishing a joint operation center in Arbil. This will not be a civilian diplomatic mission in northern Iraq, it will probably be a military-related intelligence gathering and operation control centre staffed by Turkish, Iraqi and American soldiers. Six years after the unfortunate Hood Event of 4 July, 2003, Turkish soldiers are returning to northern Iraq in cooperation with the Iraqi, Kurdish and American authorities.
Despite the dominant “cooperation against Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] terrorism” dimension, the visit was not all about that. Davutoğlu's early visit also geared up mutual relations. The High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council established during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Iraq in July 2008 received extra impetus during the visit and it was decided that the meetings should be convened under joint chairmanship of the two prime ministers and with participation of eight other ministers; the foreign, interior, foreign trade, energy, health, environment, forestry and public works ministers.
This is almost a cabinet meeting of a confederation.
The Baghdad visit also dealt with water and trade issues. Turkey guaranteed Iraq a continuous and increasing release of water from the two rivers passing from Turkey to Iraq and offered its know-how and expertise on irrigation policies and techniques. On the trade wing stood Çağlayan, who declared the 2010 trade target to be almost 200 percent more than that of 2009. Mutual trade between Iraq and Turkey currently stands somewhere around $7 billion and the two countries aim to reach a $20 billion by the end of 2010.
This is almost a trade miracle.
The Turkish foreign minister promised the Iraqis and Syrians, together with other regional countries “unlimited cooperation” in order to make the region a shining star of the world. For those who have not read Davutoğlu's pre-ministry theoretical studies, this altruism may sound absurd in an era of realpolitik; but for Davutoğlu, Iraq, Syria and other regional countries form the heart of the zone of the Mesopotamian civilization and this zone, as the mother of several world civilizations, has to be taken into consideration as a single unit when making plans for development and other social reforms. In short, Turkey cannot and must not develop in isolation from the rest of the Mesopotamian region. If Turkey is going to be a shining star of the future, so to should Iraq and Syria. In fact Davutoğlu's civilization zone overlaps with the famous Fertile Crescent and this shining region will closely resemble a crescent.
Turkey will be the shining star of that shining Fertile Crescent. No regional country should be worried about Turkey's attempts to outshine in the future of the region. In the end, this is not an exclusive just-for-me-and-not-for-you development effort. Turkish-Iraqi cooperation will benefit Iran, Lebanon and even Israel, too.
