Kirkuk

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a meeting with Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) head Hasan Turan in the capital Ankara on Jan. 2.

Fidan and Turan were accompanied by their respective delegations for the meeting, a photo the ministry released on X showed.

From November 1, Serbia will not be able to receive oil from Russia, which is delivered to the country by tankers across the Adriatic Sea and then by pipeline through Croatia. This is what Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said to the media.

Fevzi Çakmakçı, 70, who has been involved in the art of inlay for 63 years, which he learned from his grandfather when he was seven years old, fears that his ancestral profession will be lost as there is no one to maintain the art technique for future generations after him.

The number of novel coronavirus cases in Europe continues to rise, with more countries on the continent confirming their first cases.      

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said that the number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 38.     

Iraq began piping oil from its fields around the disputed city of Kirkuk on Friday, more than a year after exports were halted over troubles with the autonomous Kurdish administration north of the country.

Iraq on Dec. 24 invited companies to submit statements of interest in building a new pipeline from the northern city of Kirkuk to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

 Iraq's Supreme Federal Court ruled on Monday that a referendum held on Kurdish independence was unconstitutional and that the results of the vote were void, a court spokesman said, quoted by Reuters.

Global crude prices have hit a three-week high as the conflict between Iraqi and Kurdish forces intensifies. Iraqi troops are advancing on the city of Kirkuk, reportedly seizing the region's oil fields.

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6 percent to $52.29 per barrel, setting it on track for its highest settlement price since the end of September, according to FactSet data.

Iraqi government forces captured the major Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk on Monday, responding to a Kurdish referendum on independence with a bold lightning strike that transforms the balance of power in the country, Reuters.

Polls opened in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) on Sept. 25 as Iraqi Kurds cast ballots on whether to support independence from Baghdad.

Millions are expected to vote across the three provinces that make up the Kurdish autonomous region, as well as residents in disputed territories - areas claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.