HotNewsTurkey Staff
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Eylül 28, 2008 10:29
The Turkish President, who has accepted an invitation from his Iraqi counterpart, said Saturday he wants to visit Iraq soon and show his support for this country.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani reiterated Saturday his invitation to the Turkish President Abdullah Gul during their meeting in New York on the sidelines of a session of the U.N. General Assembly.
"The prime minister visited Iraq recently. I would also like to visit Iraq soon in a convenient time and show my support for Iraq," Gul told a press conference after the meeting.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in July visited Iraq to meet his Iraqi counterpart Nouri al-Maliki, as the first Turkish prime minister to visit the neighboring country after 18 years.
"Iraq is Turkey's neighbor, and it is passing an important process," he added.
Gul said he and Talabani also discussed Turkey's ongoing military operations against the outlawed PKK bases in northern Iraq during their meeting in New York.
Turkey held numerous air operations to crackdown outlawed PKK separatists in the northern Iraq, and launched an eight-day long cross-border operation in February.
Turkey's operations in Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region often draw protests from Baghdad. Ankara, for its part, has been highly critical of Baghdad's failure to deal with the several thousand guerrillas holed up in the north. The PKK uses northern Iraq as a base to stage attacks on targets inside neighboring Turkey.
