Masoud Barzani

Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlio?lu met with different political groups in northern Iraq and urged Iraqi Kurdish political actors for "unity and stability" in the political arena of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), underlining ongoing threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), diplomatic sources have told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The Turkish government aims to establish cooperation with the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on anti-terror issues, Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlio?lu said during his meeting with KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in Arbil on Nov. 4. 

Sevil Erku?sevil.erkus@hurriyet.com.trTurkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlio?lu will travel to Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) capital of Arbil late on Nov. 3, sources have told the Hürriyet Daily News. 

The prime minister of Iraq's Kurdistan region has appointed ministers to replace four who were unilaterally expelled from the cabinet by his party during the worst political crisis in years. 

Political parties in Iraq's Kurdish region, whose president's mandate expired in August, should respect democratic principles, the top UN envoy said on Oct. 14. 

Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, has warned early elections would be held in the region if political parties failed to resolve an ongoing crisis over the KRG?s presidency.

?Ongoing differences between political parties with regard to the presidential crisis are part of the democratic process,? he said in a Sept. 5 statement.

The U.N. condemned Aug. 25 the execution by the government of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region of three people convicted of murder and kidnapping, in the first use of the death penalty in the region in seven years.

Iraqi Kurdistan president Massud Barzani's extended term expired on Aug. 20, leaving the autonomous region in a "legal vacuum" that Kurdish political parties are still trying to resolve.

The unity of Iraq "is voluntary and not compulsory," the head of the country's semi-autonomous Kurdish region said on May 6, while stressing the Kurds had no immediate plans to break away from the central government in Baghdad.
   

US President Barack Obama met the head of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region at the White House on May 5, courting a vital ally on the frontline of the fight against Islamic militants.
 
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met Massud Barzani to discuss the campaign to regain Iraqi territory lost to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).