Fried met the undersecretary of the foreign ministry, Ertugrul Apakan, CNNTurk reported.
Bilateral U.S.- Turkish relations, the fight against PKK, as well as the new process in relations between Turkey and the “Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq” are expected to be among the issues topping the agenda in the contacts, Turkish officials was quoted by the Media sources as saying.
U.S provides Turkish military intelligence information on the whereabouts of PKK guerrillas in the mountainous Qandil on the border between Kurdistan region and Turkey, where PKK is believed to operate against the Turkish forces.
Also, U.S has urged Ankara in the past to hold direct talks with KRG and Baghdad to discuss the problem of PKK, a call refused by Turkish government until the recent meeting of Kurdistan region president Masoud Barzani with Turkish special representative to Baghdad Murat Ozcelik.
The visit comes hours after the Turkish foreign minister announced his country would start holding dialogue with U.S and Iraq to draw plans for ending PKK issue in “northern Iraq”
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Monday Turkey is considering three-way consultations with Iraq and the United States for fresh measures to purge PKK bases in neighboring Iraq.
He added this trilateral mechanism is not a format that can substitute bilateral mechanisms Turkey is separately carrying out with the United States and Iraq.
Fried is expected to depart Turkey later in the day.
Relevant to the newly building relations between Erbil and Ankara, PUK representative to Turkey on Monday revealed that a high level Turkish delegation would visit Erbil in a near future to hold talks with the Kurdish officials, as a completion to the previous meetings took place in Baghdad.
Bahroz Gelali, PUK representative told Kurdistani Nwe newspaper the delegation may be headed by Turkish government representative Murat Ozcelik, but did not elaborate.
-kurdsat.tv-
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