Barzani and Talibani to visit Turkey this week

Iraqi Kurdish factional leaders Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talibani will visit Ankara at the end of this week to hold talks with officials in the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

This visit comes after the agreement the two Iraqi leaders agreed to during September in Washington for solving their disputes, in which more than 3,000 were killed in northern Iraq since 1994.

Ankara has expressed its opposition to this agreement, because it was signed without Iraqi participation and because Iraq believes it will increase the danger of dividing Iraq, which Turkey wants to avoid.

Barzani, leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Talibani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan agreed on September 17 during meetings in Washington under the sponsorship of the US to solve their disputes through a transitional period that has to result in elections on June 1999 aimed at forming a regional council for the parliament.