Turkey-Iraqi Kurd relations take shape

The most moderate of Iraq’s neighbors, Turkey (the country most active in moving Iraq economics forward), has continued the bread-breaking process with Iraq’s Kurdish population by a visit of President Abdullah Gul in Baghdad Monday and a meeting and press conference with Iraqi President (and top Kurdish official) Jalal Talabani.

Turkey is on one side jockeying for oil and gas development deals and an increased role in transiting such resources to consumers through Turkey and, on the other, talking tough about the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK. The separatist Kurdish group has led a campaign of violence in Turkey, fed in part by the poor treatment of Kurds in Turkey.