Top Turkish diplomat calls for Iraq to designate PKK a terrorist organization during Baghdad visit

By ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister has denounced the separatist Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK,  which operates in northern Iraqi territory, as an enemy of both Turkey and Iraq. He urged the Iraqi government to ban the group as a terrorist organization as Ankara has done. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s comments came during his first visit to Baghdad since taking office. The trip came ahead of an anticipated visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after what has been months of escalating hostility between Turkey and Turkish-backed groups on one side, and Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria on the other.