ANKARA: Turkiye has lifted its flight ban on an airport in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, a restriction originally imposed in 2023 due to concerns over alleged Kurdish militant activity in the area.
The decision to resume flights to Sulaymaniyah International Airport was announced by the office of Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdish Region, late Thursday following a meeting in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan and Barzani discussed Turkiye’s relations with Iraq and the Kurdish region, as well as opportunities for cooperation and regional developments, according to a statement from Erdogan’s office.
Turkiye imposed the ban two years ago, citing an alleged increase in operations by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in Sulaymaniyah that it said posed risks to flight safety.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States, and the European Union, has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye that has extended into Iraq and Syria, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths.
