The head of Turkey for the first time in 30 years, arrived in Iraq.

President Abdullah Gul of Turkey on 23 March, arrived in Iraq. This is the first in more than 30 years visit of the Turkish state in Iraq, sends agency Associated Press.

The last Turkish president to visit Iraq, was Fakhri Korutyurk (Fahri Koruturk) in 1976.

Abdullah Gul will convince the Iraqi leadership to take more effective measures to combat Kurdish separatists who have committed attacks on Turkish territory from northern Iraq.

Turkey has repeatedly launched air bases in the Kurdish militants, and at the end of February - beginning of March 2008 conducted a large-scale ground operations in the border areas of northern Iraq.

The actions of Turkey caused when a sharp protest from Baghdad, is viewed as an encroachment on the sovereignty of Iraq. Itself between the Iraqi government has not yet been able to get the Kurds to stop armed attacks.

In Iraq, the Kurdish issue is quite serious. Observers say the threat of separatism, the northern parts of the country, populated mostly Kurds. In addition, between the central government in Baghdad and the local Kurdish authorities, there are differences in the allocation of revenues from oil in Kirkuk and Mosul.