The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that a delegation led by Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein visited Turkey to meet with Turkish officials. The delegation also includes the Iraqi Minister of Water Resources. According to the Ministry, the water issue will be discussed during the meeting.
Turkey has been controlling the water flowing into Iraq through the dams it has built over the years and using this as a weapon of war against Iraq. Numerous delegations have made similar visits in the past for the same purpose, but the disputes remain unresolved.
Fuad Hussein’s visit comes one day after the visit of Nechirvan Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Region, to Ankara. Barzani first met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, then with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) President İbrahim Kalın. Yesterday, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein were also summoned to Turkey.
According to a statement issued by the Turkish Presidency Communications Directorate regarding the Erdoğan-Barzani meeting, Erdoğan welcomed the agreement reached between the Iraqi Central Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government in the field of oil, noting that an agreement on the Development Road Project in the short term would be in the interests of the entire region. The statement noted that Erdoğan conveyed to Barzani that they were determined to ensure the success of the ongoing process in Turkey and that it was important for the Kurdistan Regional Government to continue its support for Syria’s territorial integrity and unity.
According to media reports, one of the agenda items of the meeting was Turkey’s flight ban on the International Airport in Sulaymaniyah. Erdoğan reportedly instructed the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority over the phone to lift the ban on Sulaymaniyah Airport.
Nechirvan Barzani had spoken about the ongoing “democratization and resolution process” in Turkey at a forum organized by the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) in Hewlêr (Erbil) shortly before his visit to Ankara. Arguing that it is wrong to wait for Ankara to take steps, Barzani said, “We are now in a situation where both sides are waiting for the other to take action. This problem cannot be resolved with this approach. There are certain steps that need to be taken now. For the process to yield results, the PKK needs to take these steps. I don’t want to go into details.” Barzani also joined in the slander that the PKK did not listen to Abdullah Öcalan.