It has been observed that a press statement issued at the official web site of the Iraqi Prime Ministry on 21 November contains various nonsense remarks about the sincere concerns expressed by our Prime Minister regarding the recent developments in Iraq at a press conference prior to his departure to Pakistan on the same day.

The aforementioned statement, to say the least, demonstrates that the Iraqi Prime Ministry, being detracted from the sense of reality, has confused the state of affairs in Iraq with that in Turkey.

We strongly reject the use of the rightful concerns expressed by our Prime Minister for the well-being of the Iraqi people as a basis for making groundless claims against our country by the Iraqi Prime Minister.

We recommend the Iraqi Prime Minister, instead of making fictitious evaluations about the expectations of the Turkish people, to first take into account the concerns voiced also by the Iraqi political parties about the situation in Iraq; to abandon policies that escalate tension in the country; to adopt an embracing approach towards all Iraqi people and sincerely heed to the recommendations in this regard, rather than attempting to respond to them with baseless accusations.

Our will to strengthen and develop bilateral relations with our neighbor Iraq in all fields is unequivocal. It is incumbent on the Government of Iraq under the leadership of Prime Minister Maliki to prove that it also has the same will with its words and deeds. There will then be no obstacles left for the development of relations between Turkey and Iraq.