Kurdistan
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani (left) shaking hands with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan during the pair's meeting in Ankara on Thursday, October 9, 2025. Photo: Nechirvan Barzani/X
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said on Thursday that he "discussed ongoing cooperation between the Kurdistan Region, Iraq and Türkiye," in a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara.
"We emphasized the importance of coordinated regional efforts to address issues of common interests and advance stability across the region," President Barzani wrote of his meeting with Fidan on X.
On an official visit, President Barzani arrived in Ankara on Thursday. The Kurdish leader is set to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey at 4pm, according to the Turkish presidency's Thursday agenda.
President Barzani and Erdogan will discuss Turkey's relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, regional developments, and topics of common interests, according to the Kurdistan Region Presidency's statement.
The two leaders' last meeting was on April 11 on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey.
President Barzani's visit to Ankara and his scheduled meeting with Erdogan comes weeks after the resumption of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports to the international market through Turkery's Ceyhan Port following a landmark deal with Baghdad and international oil companies. Exports had been halted in March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled that Ankara had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to independently export oil beginning in 2014.
The resumption of Kurdish oil exports has been widely welcomed, with leaders hoping that it will be followed by a lasting agreement.
The Kurdistan Region accounts for the majority of Turkish trade and investments in Iraq. Turkish companies make up more than half the foreign companies in the Kurdistan Region, where thousands of Turkish businessmen, investors and workers are doing business.
The trade volume between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey stands at over five billion dollars a year.
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