Iraq, Turkey agree security deal signalling better ties

Turkey and Iraq say they have reached a landmark deal to tackle the security threat posed by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group cached on Iraq's northern border.

The agreement, made at a security summit in Baghdad on 14 March, signals an improvement in ties and may increase the likelihood of a resolution to a dispute that is preventing crude flows resuming through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline.

"The two sides stressed that the PKK organisation represents a security threat to both Turkey and Iraq," according to a joint statement issued late Thursday.

The countries discussed measures against the group and decided to establish a permanent joint committee on combating terrorism, as well as dealing with trade, agriculture, energy, water, health and transportation issues.

Turkey welcomed a decision by Iraq to label the PKK a "banned organisation", the statement said, although Baghdad stopped short of using the term "terrorist organisation".

The PKK wants to establish an autonomous region in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast. Turkey, the US and the EU view the group as a terrorist organisation, and Turkey has long sought to prevent the PKK from using mountainous areas in northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks.

Turkey's defence minister said this week that Ankara and Baghdad are in talks to jointly crack down on the PKK's hideouts. Turkey is also aiming to create a security corridor up to 40km deep along its border with Iraq.

Turkish president Recep Tayyep Erdogan is due to visit Iraq before the end of April. Erdogan and Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani have aspirations for a $17bn trade route stretching from Iraq's southern Basrah province to Turkey and on to Europe, and they are considering trying to convince Mideast Gulf countries to help finance it.

Erdogan and al-Sudani see the corridor as an alternative to the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) project, which was announced at the G20 summit in New Delhi last September. The multinational rail and shipping corridor will connect south Asia to the Middle East and Europe and reshape Eurasian connectivity. Iraq and Turkey fear being left out.

The security deal and Erdogan's upcoming visit to Baghdad could pave the way for a resolution to a dispute that is preventing the restart of about 470,000 b/d of crude exports from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region via the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Turkey ordered the pipeline that links oil fields in northern Iraq with Ceyhan to be closed a year ago after an international arbitration ruling said it had breached a bilateral agreement by allowing Iraqi Kurdistan crude to be exported without Baghdad's consent. Turkey is holding out on paying $1.47bn that the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce said it owes Baghdad in compensation for breaching the pipeline deal. It is also seeking clarity about Iraq's position on a second arbitration case.

By Bachar Halabi