Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Monday attended the inauguration of the new president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani.
Çavuşoğlu had meetings with Nechirvan Barzani, Masrour Barzani, the former security chief who was appointed chancellor of the Kurdistan regional government, and Erşat Salihi, chairman of the Iraqi Turkmen Front.
He tweeted his congratulations to Nechirvan Barzani on his election as president and pledged to cooperate in the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Nechirvan Barzani is the nephew of former president Massoud Barzani, who resigned in 2017 after a failed bid for independence from Iraq that Turkey opposed, as did many in the international community.