A Turkish delegation, which also included the country’s military Chief of Staff Yasar Guler, arrived in Erbil on Monday night after meetings with federal officials in Baghdad.
Kurdistan Region Peshmerga Minister Shrosh Ismail welcomed the Turkish officials upon their arrival at the airport.
During their meeting, Barzani and Akar agreed on the importance of removing “militias and illegal armed forces” from Shingal in order to “normalize” the situation in the district and enable the return of the internally displaced persons (IDP), according to a Kurdistan Regional Fovernment readout.
Both Erbil and Ankara are against the presence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Shingal. The PKK has waged decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish government and has its headquarters in the Kurdistan Region and has forces in several other parts of northern Iraq.
Earlier, Akar also met with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and KDP leader Masoud Barzani.
During the meeting, President Barzani said that “it is not possible for the soil of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region to be used as a position to threaten Turkey and neighboring countries.”
According to a Kurdistan 24 TV, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar had his first official meeting with the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masoud Barzani in Erbil on Tuesday, January 19.
According to the report, during the meeting, the two sides discussed the relations between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey and coordination as well as military and security cooperation.
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