The bilateral relations between Iraq and Turkey clearly improved after the visit of Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz to Baghdad on Jan. 18, when new protocols and agreements were signed on oil, natural gas and electric energy.

This is certainly a drastic change from 2012, when the plane carrying Yildiz to a meeting in Erbil was forced to return to Turkey because Baghdad canceled the permission for it to enter Iraqi airspace.

The relationship between Ankara and Baghdad, which had been tense and problematic since 2011, had come to the point of total rupture after Turkey sidelined Baghdad and reached separate agreements with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on the sale of Kurdish oil and construction of a new pipeline between northern Iraq and Turkey.

After Haider al-Abadi’s government took over in September 2014, and with US involvement, Ankara-Baghdad relations entered into a phase of rapid restoration and improvement. In November, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Baghdad followed by a return visit to Ankara by Abadi.