Turkish defense minister visits Kurdistan Region to meet officials

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey’s defense minister and an accompanying delegation landed in the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil to hold talks with Kurdish officials following a visit to Baghdad on Monday night.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and his Chief of General Staff Yasar Guler were greeted by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Peshmerga, Shorish Ismail, and a number of top government officials, including the head of the Department of Foreign Relations, Safin Dizayee.

The top Turkish official’s visit to Erbil came after his meetings in Baghdad with senior Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, with whom he discussed military cooperation between the two countries.

In the meeting, Kadhimi emphasized “Iraq’s rejection of any threat or terrorist activity targeting neighboring Turkey, launched from Iraqi soil,” stating that Iraqi security forces are ready to combat such threats, a statement from the Iraqi government said.

The decades-long conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who have been fighting each other since the mid-1980s, has in recent years been centered in the Kurdistan Region. As of late, the conflict resulted in almost $62 million in direct damage and loss of agricultural income in the Amedi district, according to residents.

Read More: Turkish-PKK clashes have cost the Kurdistan Region's Amedi district nearly $62 million

In August 2020, a Turkish airstrike killed two Iraqi border guard officers and seriously wounded at least one other in Erbil province’s Bradost area.

Read More: Turkish airstrike in Kurdistan Region kills 2 Iraqi border guard commanders

The KRG has repeatedly called on both the warring parties to take their fight away from the Kurdistan Region and resolve their issues through dialogue.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany