The Iraq-Turkey High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council meeting held in Baghdad took place with the participation of the Turkish and Iraqi prime ministers and nine top ministers from each country. This first meeting took place with the atmosphere of a meeting of ministers from the same country and carried potential to bring the relations between the two countries to a closer level than has ever been seen before. The sides signed 48 agreements, in the fields of energy, security, transportation, environment, commerce, public works, health and agriculture, and laid the foundation for continued communication and cooperation between the top ministers of the two countries.
As with Syria, the architect of the expanding cooperation with Iraq is Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. As he has described, by traveling to Baghdad -- whither, for security reasons, many countries shy from even sending a single minister, and even when they do travel there, they do so under the utmost secrecy -- accompanied by a delegation that constituted practically half of his Cabinet in addition to a slew of businesspeople and journalists, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent the message that “what's risk to you is risk to us as well,” and he conveyed the message not with words but with action. Don't look to any other nation for an example of support on this level toward the normalization of an Iraq that has been held captive by violence and terrorism following the American invasion -- you won't be able to find it.
Alongside the symbolic value of this important visit, which brought Iraq and Turkey closer to one another, the signature of major agreements that surpassed the conjectural is a clear indicator of the long-term and institutional nature of the atmosphere of cooperation and friendship between the two countries. While the agreement on the issue of security between the two countries won clarity, with -- contrary to what one AP news piece reported -- government spokesperson Ali Debbagh emphasizing that the PKK is a terrorist organization in Iraq's view as well, just like throughout the rest of the region and the world, the agreements regarding natural gas and oil are also indicators that in addition to symbolic value added to the bilateral relations, concrete progress has also been made.
Among the concrete results of this visit in terms of energy were a 15-year extension of the duration of the Kirkuk-Yumurtalık pipeline agreement, which was set to end next March; work to increase the usage of the 70 million ton-capacity pipeline from its current level of 18 percent to 100 percent; and an 8 billion-square-meter natural gas agreement that will contribute to Nabucco. Also in this stead are an arrangement enabling the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), which profits most from foreign operations, to enter six upcoming Iraqi oil tenders directly and four in consortium, and an invitation to Turkish firms to enter the construction tender for a giant natural gas plant to be established in Iraq.
While steps have been taken down the path toward quickly resolving the issue of water, which in the past has led to tension between the two nations, the foundations were also laid for a İstanbul-Basra railroad of Turkish architecture to form a new branch of transportation from Europe to the Gulf. With the new agreements, whether having to do with regional energy or transportation projects, Turkey has added Iraq to its effort to bring the Middle East together in peace. The signing of agreements on 48 different topics and the two nations' cabinets bringing all of their weighty issues together in one place represent the important steps of a Turkish style in diplomacy and peace. The good news that Davutoğlu will hold similar meetings with Russia in December or January has brought to the agenda a new question: if this model works, why not do the same with Greece, with Iran, with Georgia and our other neighbors?
As Turkey draws closer to Iraq (by the way, Iraq means "distant" in Turkish), it is actually re-approaching its own role of establishing order, which it abandoned many years ago. And as for this role, with each passing day, it is becoming stronger in a way that surpasses the borders of the region in which Turkey is located.
