Turkey’s top diplomat visits Iraq and seeks support against Kurdish militant group

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister is visiting Baghdad for high-level meetings, ahead of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit next month and a potential Turkish offensive against an outlawed Kurdish militant group that Ankara says maintains bases in Iraq. Turkey has been seeking greater cooperation from Baghdad in its fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a banned Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s. Ankara says the PKK has a foothold in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Erdogan is expected to visit Iraq in April, after Turkish local elections on March 31. He has said that Turkey is determined to end PKK’s presence in Iraq this summer.