Turkey asked Barzani to travel Baghdad to calm situation

The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region visited Baghdad on Saturday and discussed cooperation against Iraqi sovereignty violations with his Iraqi counterpart following a deadly Turkish shelling of the Kurdistan Region.

PM Barzani met with his Iraqi counterpart Mustafa al-Kadhimi and other Iraqi officials in the capital to highlight security coordination between the regional and federal governments as well as outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad but focused heavily on a recent Turkish attack in Duhok's Zakho district that claimed the lives of nine Iraqi tourists and injured dozens more.

Both prime ministers expressed "their strong condemnation of the Turkish aggressions on Iraqi territory" and "stressed the importance of a unified vision to deal with the attack, and investigate its circumstances in a way that fortifies Iraq's sovereignty and prevents violating it in the future," read a joint statement from their offices. 

Following Barzani's visit to Baghdad, an Iraqi political source revealed to Sputnik that Turkey has asked Barzani to travel to Baghdad to calm the situation and reduce tensions after the Turkish artillery attack in Northern Iraq.

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