Turkish President Abdullah Gul (R) meets with his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani in Ankara, capital of Turkey, March 7, 2008. Talabani began his first visit as head of state to neighbouring Turkey on Friday, just one week after Ankara ended a major army ground offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels based in northern Iraq. (Xinhua Photo)
The Iraqi president's visit to Turkey just one week after Ankara ended its weeklong military mission inside northern Iraq shows the readiness of both sides to ease tensions between them in the interest of their vital economic ties.
The two countries have been at loggerheads over the issue of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), but this time their spat finally gave way, at least for the moment, to concerns that lingering tensions would impair their trade and economic cooperation, the importance of which neither side can afford to neglect, analysts said.
