Barzani

Türkiye has closed its airspace for the aircraft, which land/take-off at Iraq's Sulaymaniyah International Airport, as of April 3 upon the intensification of PKK activities in the region, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Sept. 22 that Ankara "will not refrain from using its natural rights" regarding the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government's (KRG) independence referendum slated for Sept. 25.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Iraqi Kurdish President Massud Barzani have agreed that Turkey must continue the Kurdish peace process despite escalating violence, Berlin said July 29.

The president of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has said during a visit to Peshmerga forces operating in Arbil and Mosul that the autonomous region is insistent about its independence, while also calling for unity against a recent call for dual management in the Kurdish region. 

Turkey is in talks with Israel and Egypt about establishing an air corridor to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza and evacuate potentially thousands of injured Palestinians for treatment in Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Aug. 6.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Barzani says Turkey is unlikely to oppose the declaration of an independent Kurdish state, while praising the bilateral ties that Arbil and Ankara have forged over the past decade