Ankara received a visit request from Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, Cavusoglu said in a meeting with journalists about Turkey’s foreign policy vision for 2018.
“They [KRG] want to mend relations with us,” he said.
Turkey does not want the Kurdistan Region to make another bid for independence, however, so has some preconditions before restoring relations, he added.
“We want to be certain of some things. Surely there are requests and these are being evaluated.”
Cavusoglu said that Turkey has been the only honest country with the KRG, adding that without Turkey the KRG “has no meaning.”
“All of [their] things are linked to us. The Region’s gate to the world is Turkey. They cannot go abroad without our permission,” he declared.
Turkey is an important partner for the Kurdistan Region. The KRG exports its oil, its main revenue source, through a pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.
Ankara has trained Peshmerga forces in the war against ISIS and has treated wounded Kurdish soldiers.
Under the international flight ban, many travelers, including KRG leadership, have taken the overland route through Turkey rather than fly through Baghdad airport.
Turkey refused to close its border with the Kurdistan Region when Iran did so at the request of Iraq after Kurdistan’s independence vote.
Ankara and Baghdad have also been strengthening ties as the Iraqi government is looking for a route to export its own oil to international markets.
“We will offer all sorts of aid for Iraq to reach stability,” said Cavusoglu.
He said that his country will play a significant role in talks between Erbil and Baghdad after their relationship collapsed because of the vote for independence.
The Turkish foreign minister said they “observe the same interest from both sides.”
