A conciliatory message from Baghdad to Ankara
Shafaq news/ Al-Monitor revealed details of the meeting between the President of Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on September 4 in Ankara, where sources confirmed that the summit was held with encouragement through the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Baghdad.
The newspaper said that “Turkey’s powerful spy chief Hakan Fidan was the only other person in the room during the approximately 80-minute-long conversation. Barzani spoke English. Fidan did the translating, the sources said.”
“As Macron throws his weight behind Greece and Cyprus, pressing for EU sanctions on Ankara in the escalating row over drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean, Erdogan was keen to learn what Macron discussed with Iraqi leaders, well-placed sources briefing Al-Monitor said. Barzani also met with Macron in Baghdad. “It added
According to the newspaper, “The sources denied suggestions that Barzani would be assuming a mediating role between France and Turkey or would travel to Paris in the wake of his talks with Erdogan.”
Barzani did, however, carry a conciliatory message from Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to Erdogan. “The dust has settled,” one of the sources said, without elaborating on the substance of the message.
Tensions between Ankara and Baghdad soared after two senior Iraqi officers were killed in a Turkish airstrike targeting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants last month. Baghdad canceled a planned visit by Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar in retaliation and lobbied Arab states to unite against Ankara in support of Iraq’s sovereignty.
It continued, Now, either Akar or Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu can be expected to visit Baghdad in the near future and Kadhimi to then come to Ankara on his first official visit since the former Iraqi intelligence chief became prime minister in May, the sources said.
Al-Monitor stated, On Sept. 5, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced it had ended anti-PKK operations in the Haftanin area of Iraqi Kurdistan that borders Turkey. But Turkish attacks are continuing elsewhere across Iraqi Kurdistan, with civilians squeezed in the middle.
Another issue is the “Checkpoints set up by Turkish forces and village guards, which is a Kurdish paramilitary force paid by the Turkish state, have added to local fury against Turkey and the KRG alike. The checkpoints in the Haftanin area are now being dismantled.”
“PKK sources aired skepticism over the Turkish announcement, saying Turkish attacks were likely to continue in Haftanin. The pause was at best a temporary measure to ease domestic pressure on Barzani and to placate Baghdad”, a PKK source speaking on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor via WhatsApp from Iraqi Kurdistan.
“Hours after that interview, Turkish fighter jets and artillery struck several villages in Kani Masi in region of Duhok".
Al-Monitor indicated that the issue of the Yazidis was addressed during Macron's visit to Baghdad, and during a joint press conference with Al-Kadhimi, he pledged to do everything they can to help the Yazidis in the Sinjar region.
2,800 Yazidi men, women and children are still listed as missing after being kidnapped by ISIS gangs. When Barzani returned from Ankara to Irbil, he took two Yazidi children with him, who were handed over to him by the Turkish authorities.
The boy is 11 years old, the girl 10 years old, they were kidnapped in the Sinjar region in 2014, but the fate of their parents and their four other siblings is still unknown.
