Iraqi Kurdistan president carries conciliatory message from Baghdad to Ankara
Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani carried a conciliatory message from Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to Ankara.
Details of the unexpected Sept. 4 meeting in Ankara between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani are beginning to emerge, with sources confirming that it was prompted by French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit earlier last week to Baghdad.
Turkey’s powerful spy chief Hakan Fidan was the only other person in the room during the approximately 80-minute-long conversation. Barzani spoke English. Fidan did the translating, the sources said.
As Macron throws his weight behind Greece and Cyprus, pressing for EU sanctions on Ankara in the escalating row over drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean, Erdogan was keen to learn what Macron discussed with Iraqi leaders, well-placed sources briefing Al-Monitor said. Barzani also met with Macron in Baghdad.
The sources denied suggestions that Barzani would be assuming a mediating role between France and Turkey or would travel to Paris in the wake of his talks with Erdogan.
