Ankara, Baghdad to sign key military and strategic deals

ANKARA

Türkiye is set to sign three international agreements with Iraq, including a military training cooperation memorandum and a strategic partnership framework, local media reported on March 31.

The agreements will be discussed in the Turkish parliament following the Eid al-Fitr recess. They also include a pact for the mutual promotion and protection of investments, daily Hürriyet said.

The paper quoted diplomatic sources as listing them among the most important agreements in Turkish-Iraqi history.

The military training cooperation memorandum reportedly aims to bolster security coordination and counterterrorism efforts.

It includes provisions for increasing the capabilities of Iraqi security forces, establishing dialogue on shared threats and allowing joint military exercises between the two countries.

A second agreement will create a joint planning group under the high-level strategic cooperation council mechanism, co-chaired by the foreign ministers of both nations.

This framework will oversee technical negotiations in areas such as counterterrorism, economy, trade, transportation, environment, health and education, with 12 permanent joint committees set to be established.

Baghdad recently designated PKK a "banned organization," a move welcomed by Ankara. An Iraqi court has also banned three political parties linked to PKK.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Iraq in April, his first in over a decade, marked a turning point in bilateral relations.

The trip resulted in the signing of a strategic framework agreement covering 26 areas of cooperation, including security and economic matters.

Erdoğan also held talks with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials in Erbil on regional security and global issues.

The agreements come amid efforts in Türkiye to dismantle the PKK. The process began with a political delegation visiting jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in prison after years of isolation. Öcalan later issued a historic call for the terror group to disarm and dissolve on Feb. 27.

PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.