Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Friday that the government would help Turkish citizens to leave northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) as the flights to the region will be suspended as of Friday evening. “We will use every means available to help our citizens who want to return to Turkey”, Çavuşoğlu told a news conference with his Colombian counterpart Maria Angela Holguin in Istanbul. The minister recalled that the government had issued travel warnings for Turkish citizens, and updated these warnings according to the latest developments. On Tuesday night, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi gave KRG three days to hand over control of the airports under its control to avoid an air embargo. Following Abadi’s statement, Turkey’s Consulate in Erbil announced on Wednesday that flights from Turkey to northern Iraq would be suspended as of Friday.
