The delegation, headed by Turkey's Special Envoy to Iraq Murat Özçelik, was preparing to meet with Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq, when in Ankara Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan reiterated once more that Iraqi Kurds' firmness in their stance against the PKK would be determining factor in the future of the relationship between Ankara and Iraqi Kurds.
"The manner and stance that will be displayed by the local administration in northern Iraq regarding their discourse and activities concerning the PKK will by all means influence our dialogue -- positively or negatively," Babacan told reporters at a joint press conference following their meeting with visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj.
"The extent to which they can put distance between themselves and the organization and the extent to which they can strongly display their intent to do so with concrete steps will certainly influence the characteristic and frequency of our dialogue with the local administration in northern Iraq," the minister stressed, noting that Turkey wanted the PKK to drop from the agenda of its relationship with Iraq.
"Everybody should understand well that there is no place for terrorist groups in today's Turkey and in the future Iraq. And for this to happen, everybody should do whatever it necessitates; all parties should exert efforts and international solidarity is necessary," Babacan said.
The Turkish delegation arrived in Baghdad yesterday morning and was also prepared to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in addition to holding talks with Barzani in the highest-level talks between Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds since the beginning of the US-led war in Iraq.
Ambassador Ahmet Davutoğlu, chief foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was also among the delegation led by Özçelik. Their talks in Baghdad aim at paving the way for a high-level "strategic dialogue mechanism" in relations between Iraq and Turkey, which have apparently entered a new phase following a landmark visit by Talabani to Ankara in early March.
Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, was declined an official invitation to visit Turkey as president of Iraq for nearly three years because of deep suspicions in Ankara that the Iraqi Kurds supported PKK. After talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara, Talabani vowed to cooperate with Turkey in its efforts to fight the PKK.
Also after Talabani's talks in Ankara, Massoud Barzani, the head of northern Iraq's regional Kurdish administration, has softened his discourse considerably concerning Turkey, with highlighted messages ruling out violence as a means for struggling for rights and freedoms, as well as messages of commitment to Iraq's national unity and territorial integrity.
Ankara has taken note of the clear change in Massoud Barzani's discourse and eventually a National Security Council (MGK) statement released last week revealed consensus among Turkey's top military and civilian leaders for raising the level of contact with the Iraqi Kurdish region.
"Activities in the legislative field, which constitutes the basis of national consensus in Iraq, and developments toward restoration of Iraq's standing in the region have been assessed and it has been considered that it will be beneficial to continue consultations with all Iraqi groups and movements," the MGK statement released on Thursday said.
The meeting with Nechirvan Barzani, also the nephew of Massoud Barzani, is the first direct contact with the autonomous Kurdish administration at the prime ministerial level. Turkish officials are known to have held talks with Iraqi Kurdish officials at lower levels before.
Turkey severed dialogue with the Iraqi Kurds after they refused to cooperate with Turkey against the PKK, which has bases in their region, after the Iraq War. But with the Turkish military conducting cross-border operations against the PKK in northern Iraq with assistance from the US and tolerance from the Iraqi Kurds, the time seemed ripe for restoring dialogue.
"Kurds were the only group we were in touch with in Iraq before 2003. In the post-war era, however, they gradually became the only group we didn't have any dialogue with," a senior Turkish official said ahead of the talks in Baghdad. In talks with Nechirvan Barzani, the PKK will be one of the issues but it will not be the only issue, the official also said. Energy is one of the most promising areas for cooperation between the two sides. Northern Iraq hosts sizable oil and natural gas fields and Turkey is willing to take part both in oil exploration and in transportation of oil and gas extracted from Iraqi fields to the outside world.
Hashemi in Ankara for ‘comprehensive’ talks
Ankara, meanwhile, hosted Iraqi Vice President Tariq Hashemi yesterday, who held talks with both Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül. Speaking to reporters at the airport ahead of his departure for Ohrid, Macedonia, Gül described his talks with Hashemi as "comprehensive."
Gül expressed hope that cooperation between Turkey and Iraq, particularly in energy field, would intensify and said that the state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) would hopefully be allowed in the next round of tenders for developing oil and gas fields in Iraq's south and north.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry has excluded the TPAO from a list of 35 foreign companies eligible to bid in soon-to-be-announced tenders for developing oil and gas fields in Iraq's south and north.
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