Barzani set to visit Ankara to seal deal

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

KRG PM Barzani (L) is seen with PM Erdoğan in this photo taken from the Prime Ministry. Barzani is expected to pay another visit fo seal an energy agreement.

Turkey’s willingness to maintain strong relations with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad and its eagerness to do so while finalizing energy deals with the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan will be best reflected this week in two key visits.

Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek will depart for an official visit to Baghdad today, while Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is expected to visit Ankara later this week. “Barzani and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will seal the final deal allowing the export of Kurdistan’s oil through a recently completed pipeline to Turkey and from there to the world market,” www.rudaw.net, an online news portal known to have close ties with the Massoud Barzani-led Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Iraq, reported on Nov. 25. The respective parties are working on the schedule Nechirvan Barzani’s visit to Ankara, a Turkish official told Hürriyet Daily News, adding that the energy issue will be high on the agenda of talks.

His visit comes at the completion of a pipeline that will link up to an existing Iraq-Turkey pipeline and begin carrying Kurdistan’s oil to world markets from December.

Nechirvan Barzani has announced that he would visit Baghdad this week in order to give further details regarding the Kurdish-Turkish pipelines.

Upon his talks in Ankara, Barzani is expected to visit Baghdad in order to discuss the details of the deal with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.