TIKRIT, Iraq, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The Turkish envoy to Iraq met Wednesday with leaders in the Kurdistan Regional Government ahead of the opening of a Turkish consulate in Erbil.
Masoud Barzani, the president of the KRG, welcomed Murat Ozcelik, the Turkish envoy to Iraq, at his offices in the northern province of Salah ad Din to discuss regional affairs, the KRG said in a statement.
Ozcelik expressed support for Turkish ties with the KRG, saying Ankara planned to open a consulate in Erbil in March.
Ankara is struggling to contain a resurgent threat from Kurdish militants along its border with Iraq. The militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, began its militant campaign against the ruling authorities in Turkey in the late 1970s.
U.S. military officials in 2007 offered Ankara intelligence on PKK activity in northern Iraq.
The Turkish government upended a reconciliation effort when it decided to ban a pro-Kurdish party from politics in December. Human Rights Watch in a November report on the religious minority community in Iraq accused the KRG, meanwhile, of "imposing Kurdish identity" on Shabaks, Yazidis and other groups.
