KRG PM to visit Turkey for first time since 2017 independence referendum

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani will be visiting Turkey on Monday on an official invitation where he will be attending the Oath of Office ceremony.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the head of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), and leader of the majority coalition with other nationalist allies, won the Turkish Presidential election with 53.6 percent of the votes.

Various world leaders will be attending a ceremony at the Turkish Parliament on Monday where Erdogan will be sworn into office.

The visit is Barzani’s first after relations between the two sides became tense following the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum last September.

Turkey, along with other neighboring states, opposed the referendum, in which 93 percent of the people voted for independence.

Ankara made military threats and joined in diplomatically isolating the Region. However, crucially, Turkey kept the border crossing with the Kurdistan Region open, mitigating the hardship that followed the popular vote.

Previously, ties were on a path of substantial development from 2010 when Turkey first opened their consulate in Erbil and with trade starting to become an important aspect of relations.

After Turkey’s snap elections, however, Barzani congratulated Erdogan for his party’s victory in a private phone call.

Barzani and Erdogan discussed ties between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey and emphasized ways to improve them, a statement released by the PM’s office said.

On Sunday, Kurdish villagers from the Qandil Mountains, a remote area used as headquarters by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), called on the Kurdistan Region Parliament to take action amid the recent uptick in the Turkish government’s bombardments in the northern region.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany