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Iraqi Kurdistan president carries conciliatory message from Baghdad to Ankara

Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani carried a conciliatory message from Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to Ankara.
President of the Kurdistan Regional government (IKRG) President Nechirvan Barzani speaks during a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 22, 2020. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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Details of the unexpected Sept. 4 meeting in Ankara between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani are beginning to emerge, with sources confirming that it was prompted by French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit earlier last week to Baghdad.

Turkey’s powerful spy chief Hakan Fidan was the only other person in the room during the approximately 80-minute-long conversation. Barzani spoke English. Fidan did the translating, the sources said.

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