Turkey and Iraq, though nations bound together by their extensive shared history stretching back to the birth of civilization, have in recent decades been at odds over their separate visions for the Middle East. Ankara’s war on the Kurds has spilled over into northern Iraq, displacing and killing those that have been displaced and killed for two decades. Simultaneously, their extensive energy projects suck the life out of the Tigris and Euphrates, the arteries which nurture the Iraqi people. With tensions at an all time high and the situation bordering on crisis territory, Baghdad has reached out to its Turkish counterparts, inviting the foreign and defence ministers on a diplomatic tour to hash out a framework for cooperation going forward. First they will meet their Iraqi and Kurdish counterparts in Erbil, where they will be invited to tour new Peshmerga outposts monitoring the PKK, before travelling to Baghdad for formal discussions.