Turkey and Iraq have agreed to put aside their years-long differences and renew their relationship amid fundamental political and strategic shifts in the Middle East region.
In a surprising strategic turn in recent days, Iraq and Turkey have abandoned their long-standing hostilities and embarked on a path toward closer strategic cooperation. For years, Baghdad has been condemning the presence of Turkish forces fighting Kurdish separatists in Iraqi soil, calling it an illegal violation of Iraqi sovereignty by Turkey, and this years-long resentment continued until just a few weeks ago.
Other controversial issues that hindered the progress of mending relations between Ankara and Baghdad were the illegal import of Turkish oil from the Kurdistan Region against the will of the Iraqi government, and the use of Iraqi water resources by Turkey.
Quite out of the blue, however, the two neighbors agreed to redefine Turkey’s military presence in Iraq in recent days. According to this agreement, Turkish forces will remain in Iraq, but with a new mission of training the Iraqi forces. Iraq is busy hosting millions of Arbaeen pilgrims these days.
This development not only shows a significant change in the bilateral relations between Iraq and Turkey, but it also testifies rapid changes in the priorities of the West Asian governments in their foreign relations.
Experts believe that the renewal of relations between Iraq and Turkey happened after both countries re-evaluated their regional roles, alliances and barriers. “The tensions that once defined their relationship at the height of the Syrian conflict and the rise of ISIS have subsided and given way to a more pragmatic and self-interested approach for both countries,” says Middle East studies expert at the Carnegie foundation Andrew Hudson.
Earlier this year, on April 22, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first “historic” visit to Iraq in 13 years, a trip that set the stage for the current increase in Iraq-Turkey bilateral cooperation.
Security and trade competitions connect Iraq and Turkey
In order to start improving relations, the two neighbors are set to increasingly treat hostile or non-cooperative Kurdish political-military factions as a common challenge and force them to cooperate in new ways.
Also, the emergence of the Indo-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), an ambitious US-backed project that threatens to create transcontinental trade routes that bypass both Iraq and Turkey, is a new challenge in the way of promoting Turkey-Iraq business cooperation which the two need to tackle.
The corridor, which is supported by the United States, Israel and a number of Persian Gulf states, seeks to create new trade routes that could undermine the strategic trade corridors established by Iraq and Turkey.
The fourth high-level security meeting between Iraqi and Turkish officials held in Ankara on August 15 was an important moment in this new phase of cooperation.
This meeting was attended by senior officials of the two countries and ended with the signing of the “Memorandum of Understanding on Military and Security Cooperation and Combating Terrorism” between the two countries. The MoU represented an important step forward that demonstrated the commitment to closer ties and shared security goals between Ankara and Baghdad.
