Erdogan defended his foreign minister's visit to Kirkuk ..Out «to meet his relatives»

Monday August 6, 2012



Defended the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday about the visit of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq last week [LEFT] And that angered the Iraqi government. Erdogan said the TV «AT in» It is natural «to visit the Minister passport red (diplomatic), administrative region (in northern Iraq) and then travel to Kirkuk, which lies only 40 kilometers from (Erbil) to meet his relatives».

Erdogan said that the relations growing in the field of energy between Turkey and northern Iraq, causing discomfort in the Iraqi authorities.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry considered that the visit took place without prior permission from Baghdad. Iraqi Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Davutoglu's visit to Kirkuk was «without the knowledge and approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and without recourse to official and diplomatic channels».

In a surprise move and rare for a Turkish official, Davutoglu visited Kirkuk (340 km) north of Baghdad last Thursday, coming from Arbil Wednesday, where he met President of the Kurdistan region of Iraq's autonomous Masoud Barzani. Davutoglu met in the oil-rich city and home to about 900 thousand people, representing most of the spectrum of Iraqi society, where local officials, amid strict security measures carried out by elements of the police and Kurdish forces.

And deepen the visit Davutoglu of Kirkuk witnessed by the tension of diplomatic relations between the two neighbors on the background of the events of Syria and receive Ankara, Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi required to eliminate the Iraqi raids by Turkish warplanes against the positions of the PKK in northern Iraq.

And facing the oil-rich Kirkuk, where about 900 thousand people, representing most of the spectrum of Iraqi society, the challenges and problems, most notably the various conflicts for power. The Kurds claim Kirkuk by appending the northern province of Kurdistan, while insisting on the Arabs and Turkmen, retained an independent mayor linked to the central government.

On the other hand, Erdogan's response to critics of the Turks, the U.S. President Barack Obama, who criticized the president take a picture of the U.S. holding a racket for «Baseball» It speaks to Erdogan last week. Erdogan said yesterday the channel «Aye Haber» Obama «friend expressed his respect was always never fails to morality».

Publisher of the new Iraq