The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey Mr. Ali Babacan met with Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq Mr. Berham Saleh, at the latter`s request, on 26 January 2008 in Davos during the World Economic Forum. Turkish Iraqi bilateral relations were naturally discussed in detail during the meeting.

In an interview published in the Arabic Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper of London on 30 January 2008, Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq Mr. Behram Saleh is reported to have asserted that he came to an agreement with Minister Babacan that the operations carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces against the PKK terrorist organization established in the North of Iraq, constituted a violation of the sovereignty of Iraq. Such an assertion is entirely false.

In that meeting Minister Babacan explained that the problem is the establishment of the PKK terrorist organization in northern Iraq; and that this situation is incompatible with good neighborly relations between Turkey and Iraq. He stressed that our military operations would continue until the presence in the North of Iraq of the PKK, which is accepted and declared by the whole world as a terrorist organization, is eradicated. The Minister reminded Mr. Saleh once again that Turkey expects the Iraqi Government to fulfill its constitutional, legal, bilateral and international obligations with regard to the struggle against terrorism.