Özçelik met with the provincial governor of Dohuk, one of three cities in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region located near the Turkish border, at the latter's office yesterday morning after traveling from Mosul to Dohuk by car, diplomatic sources in Ankara told Today's Zaman. Safin Dizayee, a senior official of Iraq's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, also participated in the meeting, the same diplomatic sources said.
Özçelik, visiting the neighboring country for over a week, met with the provincial governor of Dohuk, one of three cities in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region located near the Turkish border, at the latter's office yesterday morning after traveling from Mosul to Dohuk by car, diplomatic sources in Ankara told Today's Zaman.
Dizayee also participated in the meeting, the same diplomatic sources said. They, nevertheless, noted that Dizayee's participation was not particularly arranged, yet he wanted to come to the governor's office in a show of courtesy.
Dizayee told Özçelik that the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq would not let the PKK open offices in their region, Iraqi Kurdish sources, who wished to remain anonymous told Today's Zaman. Dizayee also told the special envoy that the regional authorities would take new measures to prevent PKK members from entering the region via the airport in Sulaimaniya province, the same sources said.
Özçelik's meetings in Iraq took place as a follow-up to a recent visit to Ankara by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on March 7-8. The Iraqi president's visit had come only one week after the Turkish military withdrew troops from northern Iraq following an eight-day ground offensive against the PKK. Washington, which provided intelligence assistance to Turkey during the offensive, has urged the Turkish capital to have direct talks with the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq led by Barzani, who has angered Ankara by defying Turkish calls to designate the PKK a terrorist organization and prove that he is not supporting the organization by taking visible steps to show otherwise.
Nonetheless, earlier this month, Iraqi Kurdish news portals reported on positive messages delivered by Barzani concerning Talabani's visit to Ankara. "The visit opens the door to creating very positive relations between Iraq and Turkey, and it paves the way to opening relations between the Kurdish region and Turkey," Barzani was quoted as saying.
The meeting in Dohuk yesterday ended with an accord to arrange a visit by an Iraqi Kurdish delegation to Ankara next month, the Iraqi Kurdish sources said. The venue and the exact date for a long-expected meeting between Turkish officials and Nechirvan Barzani, Massoud Barzani's nephew and prime minister of the Kurdish region, could be set during the upcoming visit by the Iraqi Kurdish delegation to Ankara, they noted.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has reiterated that Ankara doesn't consider the regional Kurdish administration a separate, official entity, while, however, admitting to constant communication between Ankara and Iraqi Kurdish officials at a certain level. "If the administration in northern Iraq succeeds in putting distance between itself and the PKK, if it starts to hold the conviction that the PKK is an element which should be removed and if we see all of this in practice, then there is no doubt that the shape of our relations with them will definitely change," Babacan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency in an interview with Fortune magazine as he reiterated that Turkey's expectations from the regional Kurdish administration in terms of the PKK presence was not words, but deeds.
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