Turkey's leader was clear about what he thought closer cooperation with Iraq would require. Iraq must act against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is designated as a terror organization in Turkey and also by the EU, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

On his first visit to Iraq in over a decade, Erdogan told Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid this week, "that Iraq must be rid of all forms of terrorism."

Erdogan also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and the two men decided upon a "strategic framework agreement" focused on security, energy, water and trade. This included a €16 billion ($17 billion) rail and road project. The two men also agreed that Turkey would buy Iraqi oil again. In total around 24 different agreements were signed this week.

Thanks to shared projects like this, Iraq and Turkey will "build lasting cooperation in all fields," al-Sudani boasted.

Given that the two countries have had tense relations for a while this visit denotes significant progress, said Lucas Lamberty, country director for the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Iraq.

Erdogan's meetings followed on from earlier visits by other senior Turkish politicains to Iraq, he noted. "Even just the fact that Erdogan visited at all can already be seen as a success," Lamberty told DW. "It shows that there's good will."

In the past, relations between Baghdad and Ankara haven't been great. During the........

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