Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi arrived Wednesday in Ankara and met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as ties between Ankara and Baghdad become warmer in opposition to the Kurdish independence referendum.
Erdogan said Turkey was ready to give all support to Baghdad as it seeks to reopen a crude oil pipeline from the Kirkuk oilfields to Turkey, through which Iraq stopped sending oil in 2014.
In a statement to media after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Erdogan said they discussed what political, military and economic steps they could take after what he called the "illegitimate" Iraqi Kurdish referendum last month.
Abadi’s visit comes after relations between the neighboring countries were strained last year over Turkey’s presence at a military base in northern Iraq.
Ankara maintained an estimated 2,000 troops in Iraq, around 500 of them were in the northern Bashiqa camp training local fighters last year ahead of the successful bid to free Mosul from the grip of the Daesh extremist group.
But since the non-binding independence vote and the countries’ mutual vehement opposition to it, Turkey has given its support to Baghdad by threatening to close its border with the Kurdistan Regional Government and apply economic sanctions.
Ankara had particularly criticized the inclusion of Kirkuk in the independence vote, stressing the province’s multi-ethnic character, where Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens live.
Abadi’s visit comes as Iraqi Kurdistan proposed Wednesday to “freeze” the results of its independence referendum and the “start of an open dialogue between the government of Kurdistan and the central government on the basis of the constitution.”

Source: Arab News