Barzani said in a tweet that he congratulated Fidan and “I look forward to working with him and deepening our cooperation.”
Fidan, believed to be one of the four Kurdish members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s new cabinet, assumed the new position after serving as the head of the Turkish intelligence agency (MIT) for several years.
Turkey and the Kurdistan Region enjoy strong economic relations, with most of the Region’s crude oil being exported to the international markets through Turkey until late March when an arbitration case between Ankara and Baghdad suspended the flow of the Kurdish oil to Turkey.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Saturday attended Erdogan’s swearing-in ceremony after the Turkish leader won the third presidential term in May elections.
The Kurdish president expressed the Region’s willingness to develop ties in all fields with the neighbouring country.
Disastrous quakes struck Turkey in February, killing over 50,000 people. Kurdistan Region’s rescue teams were among the first ones entering Turkey to help.
Mehmet Mevlut Yakut, the Turkish Consul General to Erbil, told Rudaw at the time that the Erbil-Ankara friendship grew after the quakes.
“I can say that our friendship grew stronger because of this earthquake. We already have multi-level relations with IKBY [Kurdistan Region],” he said.
