BAGHDAD // Iraq, locked in a public row with neighbouring Turkey, has summoned Ankara's ambassador in Baghdad to protest at critical remarks by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the foreign ministry said yesterday.
The envoy, Younis Demerer, heard the Iraqi complaint on Sunday after several days of charge and counter-charge.
Mr Erdogan accused his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri Al Maliki, on Thursday of stoking conflict between Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Kurds through "self-centred" behaviour.
Mr Maliki fired back that Turkey was becoming a "hostile state" with a sectarian agenda, saying it was meddling in Iraqi affairs and trying to establish regional "hegemony".
Mr Erdogan returned to the fray on Saturday, saying: "If we respond to Mr Maliki, we give him the opportunity to show off."
Analysts say Turkey is worried that growing tensions in Iraq and violence in their mutual neighbour Syria may lead to a wider Sunni-Shiite conflict in the region.
Mr Erdogan's government has also recently forged close ties with Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, which is embroiled in a row with the Baghdad government over claims to the city of Kirkuk and the region's oil.
Foreign ministry undersecretary Mr Labeed Abbawi "acquainted the Turkish Ambassador with the Iraqi government's intense protest against the recent statements", the Iraqi foreign ministry said on its website.
"Undersecretary Abbawi expressed hope that the Turkish government will stop giving statements that affect Iraq's sovereignty and internal affairs."
Mr Erdogan has criticised Mr Maliki several times since sectarian tensions flared in Iraq in December, when the Shiite-led government tried to remove Sunni deputy prime minister Saleh Al Mutlaq and sought an arrest warrant for Sunni vice president Tareq Al Hashemi on charges he ran death squads.
Mr Al Hashemi fled Baghdad and has since met Mr Erdogan in Istanbul.
The rift between Baghdad and the Kurds worsened this month when the Kurdistan regional government said it was halting oil exports because the central government was not paying oil firms operating in the north.
Iraq is Turkey's second-largest trading partner after Germany, with trade reaching US$12 billion (Dh44bn) last year, more than half of which was with the Kurdish region.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica
Best Agent: Jorge Mendes
Best Club : Liverpool
Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker
Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP
Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart
Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)
Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)
Best Women's Player: Lucy Bronze
Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi
Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)
Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to avoid crypto fraud
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Ibrahim's play list
Completed an electrical diploma at the Adnoc Technical Institute
Works as a public relations officer with Adnoc
Apart from the piano, he plays the accordion, oud and guitar
His favourite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach
Also enjoys listening to Mozart
Likes all genres of music including Arabic music and jazz
Enjoys rock groups Scorpions and Metallica
Other musicians he likes are Syrian-American pianist Malek Jandali and Lebanese oud player Rabih Abou Khalil
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
