Timing of Barzani’s visit to Turkey is telling, experts say

ANKARA: Turkey has sent a clear signal of its intentions to challenge France’s ambitions in the region by holding meetings with the Iraqi Kurdish leader Nechirvan Barzani on Sept. 4. The timing of Barzani’s visit was telling, just two days after French President Emmanuel Macron visited Baghdad to show his support for Iraqi sovereignty. Turkey and France are becoming regional rivals in their diverging moves in the Eastern Mediterranean and the battle for offshore gas rights. Barzani, the president of Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) led a delegation for a series of meetings. “Both sides stressed the desire to develop relations between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey especially in...