By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
İbrahim Kalın, director of Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MİT), met Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani at his residence in Pirmam near Erbil on July 1, closing an Iraq tour that covered Baghdad, Kirkuk and the Kurdistan Region in a single trip.
According to a KDP statement carried by Anadolu Agency, the two discussed regional security, stability and current developments, and affirmed the importance of strengthening coordination between the Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq and Türkiye across multiple areas.
Before Erbil, Kalın stopped in Kirkuk, where he visited the historic Kirkuk Citadel, held talks at the headquarters of the Iraqi Turkmen Front and met Kirkuk Governor Mohammed Seman Agha at the governorate.
The Baghdad leg of the trip produced the densest schedule. Kalın met Iraqi President Nizar Amedi, Parliament Speaker Haybat Halbousi and Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zaidan, alongside National Security Adviser Basim al-Badri and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein. He also held talks with political leaders Ammar al-Hakim, Khamis al-Khanjar and Mohammed al-Halbousi. The meetings focused on strengthening security and intelligence cooperation between the two countries.
The tour's timing places it inside a dense political calendar. It coincided with Ankara's announcement that 2,763 checkpoint and search points across Türkiye have been removed under the ongoing resolution process, a process the Kurdistan Region's leadership has publicly backed. When Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul in May, with Kalın in attendance, the peace process and the disarmament of the PKK were on the agenda, and Barzani reiterated his support.
The Iraq file also feeds directly into the run-up to the NATO Ankara Summit on July 7 and 8. Ankara has been consolidating its security architecture along the southern flank, and Iraq sits at the center of that effort through counterterrorism coordination, the Development Road project and the trilateral energy framework connecting Ankara, Baghdad and Erbil.
The three-city sweep, taking in the federal government, the Turkmen community and the KDP leadership in one itinerary, reflects the breadth of the channels MİT now maintains inside Iraq.
Sources: KDP statement, July 1, 2026. Anadolu Agency, July 2, 2026. Karar, July 2, 2026. Kurdistan Regional Government statement, May 2026.