Turkey respects Iraq's territorial integrity: Yildirim

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s prime minister Tuesday stressed that Ankara respects Iraq’s territorial integrity as well as its constitution.

At the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s parliamentary group meeting, Binali Yildirim underlined how the Iraqi Kurdish administration or KRG has a semi-autonomous status under Iraq's constitution.

Yildirim’s remarks followed a two-day visit to Turkey by KRG President Masoud Barzani, during which he was received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul and by Yildirim in Ankara.

In honor of Barzani's visit, airports in Ankara and Istanbul flew the flag of Iraq's KRG for the first time.

Rebuffing criticisms of the flag display, Yildirim pointed that the KRG “has a parliament, prime minister, ministers, and its own flag, and they have been recognized around the world this way.”

Criticisms of the flag display as unprecedented are in bad faith, he added.

He added: "Turkey respects Iraq’s territorial integrity to the end, and also respects what Iraq’s constitution requires."

Yildirim said that Turkey carried out no new diplomatic practices during Barzani's visit.

Economic ties, fighting terrorism, and liberating Mosul from the Daesh terror group were the main topics in Barzani’s meetings with Erdogan and Yildirim.