[NEWS ANALYSIS] Turkey rolls up sleeves to bring cooperation with Iraq to life

As a concrete step toward implementing this agreement, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan and an accompanying Turkish delegation paid a visit to Basra, Arbil and Mosul this week. Foreign Minister Davutoğlu said the visit is of historical importance.

Speaking with reporters aboard the plane heading towards Basra about the visit, in which 80 businessmen and 20 Turkish journalists took part, Davutoğlu pointed out that the agreement concluded on Oct. 15 must be implemented in all areas and that this is the primary purpose of the visit.

Paying visits to Iraq’s southern province of Basra and its northern province of Arbil, he said they intended to emphasize that Turkey attaches great importance to the territorial integrity and national unity of Iraq and that it does not discriminate between these two cities.

Davutoğlu noted that the visit to Arbil is particularly important. “We have strong commercial ties with northern Iraq, but no political visit at this level has previously been made,” he said. Underlining that the main items of the agenda of his meeting with the region’s president, Massoud Barzani, will be security, energy and the economy, he indicated that they intend to convey messages concerning Iraq’s security and territorial integrity to all groups and provinces in the country ahead of the elections scheduled for January 2010.

Responding to a question about his meeting with Barzani, Davutoğlu explained that they will also discuss the democratic initiative Turkey has recently launched, but that their primary agenda item will be security and terrorism. “We intend to see that our common border with Iraq [sees the passage of] only commodities, culture and peace, not terrorism. We want to make the border a border of peace,” he said. Stating that this is the first visit made by a foreign minister to these three cities, Davutoğlu said: “There were scenarios suggesting that a Turkish-Kurdish conflict would be sparked and that Turkey would enter Iraqi territory after the terrorist attack against the Dağlıca military outpost in 2007. All of these scenarios have gone bankrupt just in two years. Indeed, issues can be solved through diplomatic contact and peace, not with confrontation. We have managed to take our ties from conflict to strong cooperation.”

He further stated that some powers may have tried to incite clashes between Turkey and the Kurds in northern Iraq. “But we have improved cooperation between Turkey and Iraq. Indeed, only in this way can we turn the Turkish-Iraqi border into a border of peace and stability,” he said. Foreign Minister Davutoğlu pointed out that they need to create sound grounds for the policies being pursued and that the visit is a turning point in this regard.

Answering a question about whether the issue of deporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leaders to Turkey will be discussed during the meeting with Barzani in the evening, Davutoğlu said he would not provide any details about it but that Turkey’s demands are well known. Bringing to mind that he first discussed this issue with Nechirvan Barzani in Baghdad in November 2007, Davutoğlu underlined that Turkey’s demands have not changed since then.

‘Visit to northern Iraq was long overdue’

Responding to another question, Davutoğlu said his visit to Arbil did not imply any recognition of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, which is possible only between states. “Germany and the US are federal states. When you pay a visit to Texas, this does mean that you recognize Texas? Likewise, when we visit Arbil, this does not mean that we recognize this region. The status of northern Iraq is well specified in the Iraqi Constitution,” he said.

Davutoğlu also said Turkey was late in sending its foreign minister to northern Iraq. The foreign ministers of many countries, including the US, Russia, France and Germany, have already visited Arbil, and none of these visits meant any form of recognition of the Kurdish administration as an entity separate from Iraq, Davutoğlu said.

Noting that a trip to Kirkuk was not possible due to logistical reasons, Davutoğlu stated that a visit to this city might be possible in the near future. He added that Turkey regards Kirkuk as a center of Iraq in ethnic, religious and cultural terms and wants to see it as a model for peace and stability under an autonomous administration that will preserve these qualities. Davutoğlu also noted that he will meet with Turkmen leaders from Kirkuk during his visit to Mosul on Saturday.