Turkey and Iraq have signed a memorandum of understanding on military, security and counterterrorism cooperation, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday, after two days of high-level security talks in Ankara, Reuters reported.
The neighboring countries have in recent years been at loggerheads over Ankara’s cross-border military operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants based in northern Iraq’s mountainous region.
Iraq has said the operations violate its sovereignty, but Ankara says they are needed to protect itself.
Ties have improved since last year, when they agreed to hold high-level talks on security matters, and after a visit in April by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Baghdad, where he said relations had entered a new phase.
Ankara and Baghdad held a fourth round of meetings this week as part of the dialogue mechanism. In March Iraq labelled the PKK a “banned organization in Iraq” — a move welcomed by Turkey. Fidan, speaking alongside his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, following their talks in Ankara, said the accord signed by the defense ministers of both sides carried “historic importance,” while Hussein said it was “the first in the history of Iraq and Turkey” in this field.
“Through the joint coordination and training centers planned in this agreement, we believe we can take our cooperation to the next level,” Fidan said.
“We want to advance the understanding we are developing with Iraq on counterterrorism through concrete steps on the ground,” he added.
A Turkish diplomatic source said that, with the agreement, a Joint Security Coordination Centre would be established in Baghdad along with a Joint Training and Cooperation Centre in Bashiqa. Hussein, speaking about the Bashiqa training camp, said “The onus will rest on the Iraqi armed forces,” without elaborating.
On Monday Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters that recent steps taken by Turkey and Iraq on counterterrorism marked a turning point in ties, adding that Ankara wanted Baghdad to go a step further and label the PKK a terrorist organization as soon as possible.
The PKK, which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.