Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Tuesday denounced a separatist Kurdish group that operates in Iraq as an enemy of both countries and urged the Iraqi government to ban it as a terrorist organisation, as Ankara has done.
Mr Fidan called on Iraq to designate the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, as a terrorist organisation during his first visit to Baghdad since taking office.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit the country shortly, after months of escalating hostility between Turkey and Turkish-backed groups on one side, and Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria on the other.
After meeting Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Mr Fidan urged Iraqi officials to “not allow our mutual enemy, the PKK terrorist organisation, to poison our bilateral relations".
Baghdad has often complained that Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq are a breach of its sovereignty.
But Mr Fidan described the PKK's activities there as a “challenge against Iraq’s sovereignty", accusing the group of “occupying” areas in Iraq and seeking to link Iraq to neighbouring Syria with a “terror corridor".
The PKK question is expected to loom large during a visit by Mr Erdogan, along with the resumption of oil exports from northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region through the Ceyhan port in Turkey.
Officials in Baghdad and Erbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government, have long been at odds over sharing of oil revenues.
In 2014, the Kurdish region decided to unilaterally export oil through an independent pipeline to Ceyhan.
Drought in Iraq reveals Yazidi shrine, cemetery and school - in pictures
Turkey halted oil shipments from the Kurdish region through Ceyhan in March, after a ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, which sided with Baghdad, holding that all oil exports should go through Iraq’s state-owned oil marketing company, Somo.
The ruling required Ankara to compensate Baghdad for unauthorised oil exports from the Kurdish regional government from 2014 to 2018.
Iraqi Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmed Al Sahaf said a high-ranking Iraqi delegation, led by Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani, is in Turkey.
Mr Hussein said after his meeting with Mr Fidan that they had discussed the oil issue and were close to finalising a solution.
He said the discussions with the Turkish minister had also focused on water issues.
The countries have been at odds over management of shared water resources amid intensifying droughts in Iraq.
“Given our shared challenges with climate change and Iraq’s historical reliance on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers originating in Turkey, it’s crucial for Iraq to receive its fair share of water,” Mr Hussein said.
The two foreign ministers also spoke about recent public Quran-burnings in Europe, which sparked mass protests in Iraq, some of them violent.
Mr Fidan said that if the two Muslim-majority countries “remain united, those who attack our sacred values will think twice before taking such action".
Mr Hussein said about 700,000 Iraqis live in Turkey, and 850 Turkish companies operate in Iraq.
Mr Fidan said that bilateral trade has reached $25 billion.
He is next scheduled to visit Erbil and meet the Kurdish region's Prime Minister, Masrour Barzani.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
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