ANKARA/CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2021) Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Monday said that his country was ready to cooperate with Iraq on fighting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered to be a terrorist group by Ankara.
Earlier in the day, Akar visited Baghdad, meeting with his Iraqi counterpart, Juma Inad.
"Our cooperation and coordination play a significant role in the fight against the terrorist group PKK. We are ready for any kind of cooperation with Iraq," Akar said, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.
Meanwhile, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi issued a statement about Kadhimi meeting with the Turkish defense minister. Kadhimi stated that Baghdad would not tolerate any terrorist threat to Ankara coming from the Iraqi territory and assured that Iraq was capable of eliminating them. The sides also discussed military cooperation and fighting terrorism at the border between the two countries.
The Turkish government has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since the early 1980s. The PKK and Turkey signed a ceasefire agreement in 2013, but it collapsed just two years later over several terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK militants.
