Iraq and Turkey's prime ministers held talks Saturday in Baghdad which both said reflected progress in resolving a bitter row over the presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said at a joint press conference after meeting Turkey's Binali Yildirim that the issue would be solved soon. "The prime minister and the delegation accompanying him confirmed that this issue will be solved in a satisfactory manner soon," he said.
Turkey has for some time maintained troops at a base near Bashiqa, a town just northeast of Mosul, and reinforcements dispatched there in 2015 led to a deterioration in relations between the two neighbours. Baghdad has accused Turkey of violating its sovereignty but Ankara has insisted rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who are based in northern Iraq should be dealt with.
Yildirim on Saturday said Abadi had provided such assurances. "This is very important for us. We were very pleased with this and it shows in the best way what we can do in the fight against terror," he told reporters. The PKK, a Turkish organisation, and its local allies control key areas in the Sinjar region, which lies between Mosul and Syria, south of the Turkish border. Ankara has blamed a number of recent deadly attacks in Turkey on the PKK and has hinted it would not hesitate to cross the border to hunt down the Kurdish separatists.
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