Haider al-Abadi

We are all locked in on Syria. Our eyes and ears have been focused on this land. Yet this seems to make us overlook what's going on in another country along Turkey's southern borders, which is Iraq. The country has been going through its darkest period in the last 14 years, ever since the U.S. invasion and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The Munich Security Conference has started in Munich on Feb. 17 with top world leaders, diplomats and defense officials getting their first opportunity to meet with members of the U.S. President Donald Trump's administration amid concerns over the new president's commitment to NATO and posture toward Russia.

An Iraqi police officer was killed and seven others wounded in clashes on Feb. 11 with protesters loyal to prominent Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in central Baghdad, an interior ministry spokesman said. 

Ankara and Baghdad are waiting to sign a memorandum of understanding regarding the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency's (TİKA) future role in the neighboring country after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is removed from Iraq.

Turkey will not withdraw its troops from the Bashiqa military camp in northern Iraq until the end of the Mosul offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Turkish official has told the Hürriyet Daily News, elaborating on talks held during Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım's recent trip to Iraq. 

Turkey and Iraq will coordinate and take measures without delay against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) presence on Iraqi soil, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said, while reiterating that Ankara would take necessary action to remove the PKK from Sinjar if Iraq and the Peshmerga do not.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım's two-day visit to Iraq has resulted in mutual understanding among Ankara, Baghdad and Arbil to exert more efforts for a joint struggle against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has expanded its influence in northern Iraq. 

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said that Turkey's Bashiqa camp in Iraq, which had caused a row between the two countries, would be resolved in a "friendly manner."

If there are no last-minute changes, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will spend his weekend in Iraq, first in Baghdad and then in Arbil, in talks with both the central and regional governments. In Baghdad, Yıldırım will be hosted by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and in Arbil by the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani.

Ankara and Baghdad have decided to focus on a positive agenda instead of disagreeing during a visit on Jan. 7-8 that aims to overcome earlier tensions and find momentum in areas of potential cooperation.