Safin Dizayee made the remarks over reactions by Iran and Turkey over the about the printing of a controversial stamp commemorating the pope's visit to the region last week.

Last week, Pope Francis, the world's Catholic leader, traveled to Erbil, where the region officials unveiled a number of commemorative stamps, one of which contained a map showing the Kurdish areas of the neighboring countries as part of the Kurdistan Region and the image provoked strong reactions inside Iraq, as well as from Turkey, Syria and Iran.

Speaking to Anatolia News Agency, Dizayee that the stamps were not the plan and decision of the KRG and were designed by a few graphic artists as a memorial to the pope and as a gift to the Ministry of the KRG Minister of Communications but the ministry has not approved any of them and has not decided to publish them.

Referring to criticisms over these stamps, he said that some members of the Iraqi parliament have also protested that Arabic was not used in these stamps and stressed that Arabic and Kurdish are the two official languages ​​in Iraq and should be printed on all stamps.

Dizayee pointed to the sensitivities of the countries in the region in this regard and said that "the Kurdistan Regional Government is responsible for the region and, according to the Iraqi constitution, it has specific and limited powers and has neighbors outside its borders. The KRG respect the sovereignty of by Iran, Turkey and Syria and wants the countries to respect Iraq and Kurdistan Region's sovereignty."

Regarding Turkey's reaction to these stamps, he noted that these reactions are mostly related to Turkey's domestic policy and the pressure exerted by the opposition on the government and to use it as a pressure card in Turkish domestic politics, which has nothing to do with the Kurdistan region, but problems have already happened and have been resolved through dialogue.

The head of the foreign relations department of the regional government emphasized that the political, economic, cultural and historical relations of the region with Iran and Turkey are very good and the issue of the stamps will be resolved tactfully and the stamps are only a preliminary and unapproved plan and are not official, adding that " the issue of the map (on the stamp) has finally been resolved and the policies of the regional government are clear and unambiguous in this regard, and the security and stability of the region is the priority, and the region's priority is to establish optimal and friendly relations with the neighboring states and the world."

Dizayee stated that such issues will be resolved through understanding and that the Turkish Foreign Ministry also wants to resolve these issues and added that "statements are heard from some Turkish parties against Iraq and the region, but the region does not consider them as the official position of the Turkish government and would not react to the harshly."

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