Baghdad reaffirmed on Sunday its strong support for the ongoing peace talks between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), a week after the group announced the withdrawal of all its fighters from Turkey to northern Iraq.<\/p>\n
Following talks with Turkish authorities through the Equality and Democracy of Peoples Party in October 2024, the PKK announced its dissolution in May after more than four decades of armed conflict with Turkish forces.<\/p>\n
Over the past decade, most of the group\u2019s fighters have taken refuge in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq, where Turkey has maintained military bases for 25 years and has regularly launched ground and air operations against them.<\/p>\n
Last week, the PKK declared the withdrawal of all its forces from Turkish territory to northern Iraq, urging Ankara to move forward with the necessary legal measures to safeguard the peace process.<\/p>\n
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said during a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Baghdad:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly support the ongoing talks between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party, and we look forward to an agreement in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Fidan stated,<\/p>\n
\u201cEnding the PKK\u2019s armed activities in Turkey is of great importance to us. These activities must also cease in Iraq, Syria, and even Iran to ensure the region\u2019s stability, security, and to prevent foreign interference.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the PKK currently occupies \u201cvery large areas in Iraq,\u201d emphasizing Turkey\u2019s close cooperation with Iraqi authorities, and thanked both Baghdad and Erbil for their collaboration.<\/p>\n
Turkey has formed a parliamentary committee to lay the groundwork for the peace process with the PKK, including drafting the legal framework for the group\u2019s transition from armed struggle to political participation.<\/p>\n
The committee\u2019s mandate is expected to continue until the end of this year, with a possible two-month extension if necessary.<\/p>\n
During his visit to Baghdad on Sunday, Fidan also announced that the two countries will sign \u201can important and unprecedented agreement on water,\u201d without providing further\u00a0details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Baghdad reaffirmed on Sunday its strong support for the ongoing peace talks between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), a week after the group announced the withdrawal of all its fighters from Turkey to northern Iraq. Following talks with Turkish authorities through the Equality and Democracy of Peoples Party in October 2024, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"7","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"left-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}