Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani visits Ankara for talks with Turkey’s President Erdogan

ERBIL — Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani departed Thursday morning for an official visit to Ankara, where he is scheduled to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss bilateral relations and regional developments, the Kurdistan Region Presidency said.

According to the statement, the two leaders will “discuss Turkey’s relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, the situation in the region, and several issues of mutual interest.”

Barzani and Erdogan last met in April on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

The visit follows the recent resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region after the Iraq–Turkey pipeline was halted in March 2023 following an arbitration ruling in Paris.

Exports resumed after what officials described as a “historic agreement” on Sept. 25 between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, which transferred export operations to Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO.