ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani is set to arrive in Ankara on Tuesday, where he is scheduled to hold a series of meetings with the country's top officials, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Kurdish premier will discuss an array of different topics with the Turkish officials, most notably Erbil-Ankara bilateral relations, the resumption of Kurdish oil exports through Turkey’s Ceyhan port, and the future of Syria.

He is set to kick off the trip with a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in the morning, before meeting with Erdogan in the afternoon.

The Kurdistan Region and Turkey enjoy strong economic relations with trade volume said to be over five billion dollars between Erbil and Ankara every year.

The visit comes days after Mazloum Abdi, General Commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), urged the Kurdistan Region’s top officials to provide mediation and assistance in resolving the Kurdish issue in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Kurdistan Region officials have been in contact with Washington, Ankara, and Damascus to ensure Kurdish rights are preserved in the new political landscape of Syria.

The SDF and its Kurdish opposition in Syria, the Kurdish National Council (ENKS), recently held a meeting aimed at presenting a united Kurdish front in Damascus, upon the call of President Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

The SDF has been engaged in daily clashes with Turkey and its affiliated rebel groups in northeast Syria since the start of the ex-rebel groups’ campaign in late November, resulting in hundreds of casualties and leading to the displacement of thousands of civilians.

Another topic of discussion is the resumption of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports, which have been halted since March 2023 after Ankara lost a case against Baghdad in a Paris-based arbitration court. The case accused Ankara of breaching a 1973 agreement by allowing Erbil to sell oil independent of Baghdad.

Prime Minister Barzani has repeatedly stressed that the halt in exporting the Region’s oil impacts Iraq’s economy as a whole, with over $25 billion in lost revenue to date.

The Kurdish premier last visited Turkey in June 2023, holding several high-profile meetings, including a meeting with Erdogan during which the two emphasized the significance of enhancing bilateral ties, and agreed on the need to expand avenues for cooperation and coordination on security matters, as well as economy and trade.

Erdogan visited Erbil in April of last year, his first trip to the Kurdistan Region since 2011, meeting with Prime Minister Barzani and several other top officials.