Turkish delegation visits Baghdad

A Turkish delegation yesterday traveled to Baghdad to hold talks with top Iraqi officials. The delegation, made up of Murat Ozcelik, Turkey's deputy special representative to Iraq, Ahmet Davutoglu, chief foreign advisor to the premier, and Prime Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, first met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Speaking to reporters afterwards, Davutoglu said that the presence of the terrorist PKK in northern Iraq could be tolerated neither by Turkey nor Iraq. "For us, continuing operations is not a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. It's just the opposite," he added. For his part, Zebari said that the PKK is a terrorist group which gets no support from the Iraqi government. However, he warned that the presence of foreign troops in the Iraqi territory was a sensitive matter for Baghdad. He added that they want to have good relations with Turkey. The delegation then held talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and gave him President Abdullah Gul's official invitation to visit Turkey. After holding contacts at the US Embassy, Davutoglu said that US support for Turkey is continuing and that the PKK will be eliminated from northern Iraq.