ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkey’s and Iran’s foreign ministers met in Istanbul on Friday, reiterating commitments to cooperate on regional issues after tensions between their nations last month over Turkish military interventions in Iraq.

Both ministers “Reiterated our agreement … on strong cooperation in the fight against all sorts of terrorism, especially PKK/YPG,” tweeted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, referring to two armed Kurdish groups – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Both groups are considered terrorist organizations by Ankara.

Cavusoglu also said they discussed their “commitment to Syria’s territorial integrity.”

A tweet from his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif was less specific. He said it was a “productive trip” and they discussed “constructive engagement on bilateral and regional issues.”

He added that the ultimate aim of the visit was to “Apply #Iran and #Turkey's experience of 400 yrs of peace to our region.”

Turkey regularly carries out military operations against the PKK inside and outside Turkey and against the YPG inside Syria. Tehran has an agreement with Ankara to coordinate operations against armed Kurdish groups based in the Kurdistan Region.

But Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi, in an interview with Rudaw last month, sparked a diplomatic spat when he called on Turkey to withdraw its troops from Iraq and said Turkey had no business threatening an invasion of the northern Iraqi region of Shingal.

“We reject military intervention in Iraq and Turkish forces should not pose a threat or violate Iraqi soil,” Masjedi said.

Zarif’s visit to Istanbul coincides with the third anniversary of the Turkish invasion of the Afrin region in northern Syria, which was held by the YPG. Ankara is also in the midst of a crackdown within its own borders on the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for alleged links to the PKK.

Rudaw