TURKISH PRESIDENT IS IN IRAQ TO STRENGTHEN TIES WITH MIDDLE EAST
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan landed in Baghdad on Monday beginning a rare visit to Iraq aimed to reset ties between the Middle East neighbors.
His long-awaited visit is the first by a Turkish leader since 2011 and follows years of rocky relations as Ankara ramped up cross-border operations against PKK militants based in mainly Kurdish, mountainous northern Iraq.
Iraq has said such operations violate its sovereignty and have killed civilians, but Turkey says it must protect itself against the PKK, which had been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and some other countries.
Iraqi and Turkish officials said more than 20 memoranda of understanding would be signed during Erdogan’s one-day visit.
Bilateral trade was worth $19.9 billion in 2023, down from $24.2 billion in 2022, according to official Turkish data while exports to Iraq rose by 24.5percent and imports fell by 46.2 percent in the first three months of 2024.
