Turkey woos Iraqi provincial leaders to rekindle relations
Ankara hopes its diplomatic efforts in the Shiite-dominated southern provinces of Iraq will improve Turkey's political standing with Baghdad.
Turkey, unable to motivate Iraq to revive the two countries' dormant relations in many fields, appears to have resorted to unusual tactics that might best be labeled “provincial diplomacy.”
Turkey’s ambassador in Baghdad, Fatih Yildiz, has been traveling to southern Iraqi provinces to meet local administrators and attend local events.
In an era when Turkey's government, spurred by sectarian impulses, is said to be deviating from traditional foreign policy, it escaped no one's notice that the ambassador was concentrating on Shiite-dominated southern regions. Yildiz, who had earlier visited the southeastern provinces of Babylon, Najaf and Karbala, most recently made a four-day trip to the southwestern provinces of Wasit, Maysan, Basra and Dhi Qar.
Yildiz went to Kut in Wasit on April 29 for the 102nd anniversary of the World War I Kut’ul Amara victory against the British that he described as a joint Turkish-Iraqi victory. He also met with government and business officials in Maysan and Basra provinces before concluding his tour in Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qar province, where he said work is progressing on the reopening of Turkey's consulate in Basra.
