Turkey sets new Kurdistan policy to balance Erbil-Sulaymaniyah ties

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Intelligence Online
6 Jul 2023 16:03

Intelligence Online reports that Ankara is trying to prevent Sulaymaniyah from establishing close relations with Iran.

Turkish President then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and then-President of Iraqi Kurdistan region Masoudd Barzani in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on November 16, 2013. (AFP)

Turkey's ties with Erbil are witnessing a transformation as Ankara is trying to establish more balanced relations between its historical point of contact, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) president Neshirvan Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah, the region's second city.

Last March, Turkey suspended the imports of oil from the region amid tensions with Baghdad after a legal order obtained from a Parisian court concluded that the Turkish government violated a bilateral treaty with Iraq by supporting Kurdistan's independent sales of oil.

While Baghdad and Erbil agreed on a mechanism for the semi-autonomous region's oil exports, Turkey is yet to open the way for Kurdistani fossil outflows.

According to Intelligence Online, after being appointed as head of Turkey's intelligence services on June 2, Ibrahim Kalin was assigned to repair the country's relations with authorities in Sulaymaniyah.

Senior intelligence officials made a visit last month to the Talabani clan to discuss the resumption of flights between Turkey and Sulaymaniyah, which were halted in April after Ankara asked the PUK to distance itself from the Kurdish Workers Party PKK (designated a terrorist organization by Turkey), the site added.

Relations between the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) and the PUK (both of which are the regional government's two political parties) witnessed a downturn in June following the vote on oil return budgets; Turkey fears the strained ties between the two parties might push the PUK, whose governing geography borders Iran, to establish closer contact with Tehran.

After the departure of former MIT chief of Kurdish origin Hakan Fidan, who had good relations with KRG's KDP Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, Ankara's policy toward the region started shifting.

In attempts to maintain strong ties, Barzani traveled to Ankara on June 20 to be the first foreign leader to congratulate Erdogan on his re-election.