Main opposition leader set to visit Iraq after Eid

ANKARA

Deputy Chair Gürsel Tekin announced the visit that also includes stops at Tunisia and Iran.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu will pay a visit to Iraq after the three-day long Eid al-Fitr, which begins Aug. 8, Deputy Chair Gürsel Tekin announced today at a press conference, without specifying the exact date.

The announcement by Tekin came as he was criticizing the government’s foreign policy, while speaking to the press in order to inform reporters about the agenda of the party’s Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting which was being presided over by Kılıçdaroğlu during the same day.

Noting that the invitation for the visit to Iraq was extended “at the highest level,” from the central government in Baghdad, Tekin said Kılıçdaroğlu, along with a delegation, would visit in the days after the end of Eid al-Fitr, that’s to say after Aug. 10.

Sources from the CHP headquarters told the Hürriyet Daily News that the visit was likely to kick off on Aug. 20 and was expected to take three or four days.

Arbil, the capital city of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) presided over by Massoud Barzani, is planned to be a destination on Kılıçdaroğlu’s itinerary for Iraq, Tekin added. He announced that Iran and Tunisia were two other countries which Kılıçdaroğlu planned to visit in the coming days, without specifying the dates.