Oglu's Visit To Baghdad Opened a New Page In Relations Between Iraq and Turkey

BAGHDAD / NINA / Iraq Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari said the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu to Baghdad opened a new page in relations between the two countries. He said in a joint press conference with Oglu on Sunday 10, Nov that: "The relationship between Iraq and Turkey witnessed a rigid and temporarily strained during the past two years , and this case is over now and we started a new page of the normalization of bilateral relations, both politically and economically ." He added: "We have reached this situation through communicating and ongoing work , as we have put, a few months ago, a roadmap to get to this healthy relations between the two countries ." Zebari stressed that " the will is available, at Baghdad and Ankara, to push forward bilateral relations ," adding that Oglu's visit has opened a new page of these relations. He continued: "We have agreed, during our discussions with Oglu, on the reactivation of the Committee on political dialogue and diplomacy between the two countries , and soon the undersecretaries in both ministries will meet in Ankara to re- activate this mechanism , also we agreed to reactivate the Joint Ministerial Committee to hold a high-level meeting chaired by the prime ministers of the two countries in the near future." He pointed out that " there is an invitation from House Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi to his Turkish counterpart Jamil Chick to visit Baghdad in the near future , as Oglu offered an invitation to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to visit Turkey." He explained that " It was agreed on joint cooperation in the field of energy, oil , water and agriculture in the future , " pointing out that "Turkey is an important trading partner for Iraq and the volume of trade between the two countries is up to / 12 / billion dollars and there is desire to increase it. With regard to the Syrian crisis , Zebari said : "The visions are uniform over the Syrian crisis , and we do not support the militarization of the conflict in Syria because it leads to more bloodshed ," adding that the Iraqi government confirmed its position to prevent providing or facilitating any party in the Syrian crisis with weapons, and the Iraqi authorities have carried a series of inspection procedures for the Iranian and Syrian planes also passing through the Iraqi airspace. For his part , Oglu said that "there is an acceleration in the development of relations between the two countries because of the historical friendship between Turkey and Iraq is inseparable ever, and there is strong will to the Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to develop these relations." He added: "Any crisis experienced by the Iraqi people is a plight for the Turkish people as well, and the terrorist attacks, being waged on Iraq affect us , " stressing Turkey's readiness to cooperate with Iraq in combating terrorism. He stressed, what he called the terrorist nature of the Syrian regime, noting that he had told Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that his position, four years ago, was right when Maliki accused the regime of Bashar al - Assad of being behind the terrorist acts that occur in Iraq. He made it clear that the Syrian regime is the one who allowed terrorist groups to operate inside Syria by aircraft bombed important cities like Damascus, Homs and Aleppo , and killed civilians , pointing out that history did not see as Bashar al-Assad's regime in killing people in this horrible way . / End