( Cihan ) - Turkey's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will soon visit Ankara to strengthen bilateral ties.
"All problems between Turkey and Iraq will be discussed in detail with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in an effort to consolidate the friendly relations between the two countries," Gul said on Thursday.
The announcement came a few days after it was discovered that the US weapons given to the Iraqi army have been found in the hands of the Kurdish Workers' Party forces (PKK) in northern Iraq, while assertions have been made that these weapons were sold by corrupt low-ranking soldiers.
Washington and Baghdad have been asked by Ankara to take concrete steps to crack down on the PKK and to wage an incursion into northern Iraq, where the PKK strongholds are based. Turkey, the United States and the European Union recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization.
More than 30,000 people have so far been killed in clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK in the past two decades.