Iraq’s new Turkmen minister pledges cooperation with Türkiye

Mohammed Samaan Agha, recently appointed state minister in Iraq, pledged to work “for the benefit of Iraq and Türkiye” in remarks to Turkish journalists in Baghdad on Sunday. Agha, who also leads the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) and serves as governor of Kirkuk, had met Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday, when Fidan was in Baghdad for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Fidan congratulated Agha on his appointment and said Türkiye had long monitored the challenges facing Iraq’s Turkmen community. He called for a more institutionalized framework for bilateral cooperation. Agha said the sides discussed security, trade, oil exports, energy, water and the fight against terrorism, and that regional tensions had seriously harmed Iraq’s oil exports.

Agha called for faster progress on the $20 billion Development Road Project, unveiled in May 2023 to move goods from the Gulf to Europe via the Grand Faw Port in Basra. Agha was elected governor of Kirkuk in April, becoming the first governor of Turkmen origin in more than a century.