The Turkish government is gearing up to play a mediating role between the Iraqi central government and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Irbil to resolve their post-referendum dispute.
The mediation proposal was announced by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on 10/01/2018.
In the first two weeks of December, KRG high-level officials visited France and Germany by taking the overland route through Turkey, and then taking a flight from there to discuss the deadlock on Irbil-Baghdad relations.
The statement follows an announcement by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Tuesday at a news conference in Baghdad, which said that Iraq remains committed to its cooperation in various areas with Turkey, including border management, bilateral trade relations and oil shipments, especially from Mosul and Kirkuk.
Cavusoglu expresses Turkey's intension as "Our desire is to overcome these problems as soon as possible in the framework of Iraq’s territorial integrity. After such normalization, after Arbil accepts this, we will not have a problem there"
It is also important to note that the Turkish government seeks to counterbalance Iran’s increasing influence in Iraq. While Iran is dealing with its internal unrest, Turkey sees an opportunity to seize.
