News Analysis: Terror threat tops Turkey-Iraq talks agenda

Iraq's Vice President Osama al-Nujaifi paid a visit to Turkey on Wednesday with a special focus on security situation in Iraq, the fight against the Islamic State (IS) and the refugee crisis.

"Turkey is concerned about security vacuum in Iraq while strongly supporting the territorial integrity of the Arab country," Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, professor of international relations at Gazi University, told Xinhua.

"On the other hand, Iraq is worried about the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq via Turkey and Syria," he added.

Nujaifi met with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and moved for a working lunch that was attended by Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz, and acting director of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Ismail Hakki Musa as well as other Iraqi and Turkish officials.

The visit of Nujaifi, a leading Sunni politician and former speaker of Parliament, came on the heels of recent phone conversation he had with the Turkish prime minister on security matters.

"We acknowledge Turkey's support to Iraq against terrorism attacks," Nujaifi told Davutoglu in the telephone conversation held last Friday.

A statement from Nujaifi's office noted that the vice president urged Turkey to do more over the phone, saying that "we request Turkey's role to be more active."

The Turkish intelligence chief suggested that the threat from the IS was on top of the agenda during the talks.

"Not only terrorist threat but also humanitarian crisis in terms of refugees place a burden on both Turkey and Iraq," Erol underlined.

Iraqi Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Yazidis who had fled from the IS threat are living in camps that were set up both in Iraq and Turkey.

In the field of security, both sides have already an agreement brokered during Davutoglu's visit to Baghdad on Nov. 20, during which Turkey and Iraq agreed to cooperate in the fight against the IS, intelligence sharing and the training of Kurdish peshmerga fighters by Turkey.

Nujaifi's visit was also a follow-up to the meeting of intergovernmental conference dubbed as High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council between the two countries which was held on Dec. 25 and 26 with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's attendance.

In a joint press briefing with visiting the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-abadi in December, Davutoglu said Turkey and Iraq follow the same approach towards all terrorist groups in the region.

"Turkey will continue to provide all kinds of support to Iraq in the fight against terrorist groups in the region," he remarked.

The security situation in Iraq has worsened since June last year, when clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS.

The IS has taken control of the country's large swathes of territories, mainly in Sunni provinces, after Iraqi army collapsed. Baghdad has been trying to push back IS forces since then.

Nujaifi's visit is a positive development considering ties between Iraq and Turkey have been developing recently, according to Turkish analyst Mesut Cevikalp.

"Turkey's relationship with Iraq had long been on the backburner over disagreements of Ankara with the previous government in Iraq, especially on exporting Kurdish oil via Turkey," he said.

Turkey's independent energy ties with the Kurdistan regional government angered Baghdad. But the issue subsided when a deal reached between the Iraqi government and the regional government on oil exports.

After the deal, Kurds are allowed to export 250,000 barrels of oil per day to international markets via Turkey's port of Ceyhan.

Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani was in Ankara last week to meet with the high-ranking Turkish officials.

"Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was considered to be favoring Shiites over Kurds and Sunnis and that was another source of friction," Cevikalp told Xinhua.

A new unity government that was formed on Sept. 8 under Abadi after resignation of Maliki paved the way for better ties between Ankara and Baghdad. Endit