Davutoğlu will be accompanied by the state minister responsible for foreign trade, Zafer Çağlayan, and a 70-member business delegation during his two-day visit to northern Iraq, the first stop of which will be Basra on Friday, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday. Following the inauguration of the consulate general in Basra, Davutoğlu and the accompanying delegation will proceed to Arbil, which will host a business forum. The inauguration of the consulate general in Mosul will take place on Saturday. The same diplomatic sources, meanwhile, didn't elaborate on Davutoğlu's contacts in the region and whether he will hold talks with the president of the largely autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani.
Relations with Iraqi Kurds were significantly strained due to the presence of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, run by a semi-autonomous Kurdish administration since 2003. Ties with the Iraqi Kurdish leadership have also improved in the past year, with Kurdish officials joining coordinated efforts by the US, Turkey and the Iraqi central government to fight the PKK.
Earlier this month, during a visit to Baghdad, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey would soon open a consulate in Arbil, the regional capital of the Iraqi Kurdish region, a major step in furthering dialogue with the Kurdish administration. Yet, sources said the opening of the consulate in Arbil was not likely to take place during Davutoğlu's visit, adding that efforts were still under way.
