Iran, Turkey slam controversial Kurdish stamp marking Pope’s visit to Iraq

Iran and Turkey have strongly censured the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for its reported plans to print a contentious postage stamp commemorating Pope Francis’ recent trip to the Iraqi semi-autonomous region.

According to Press TV, on March 5-8, the head of the Roman Catholic Church made a historic visit to Iraq and its northern Kurdistan region, where he met with senior officials and held prayers and masses.

The KRG’s Ministry of Transportation and Communication issued six stamps to mark the visit. One of the stamps depicts a map of the so-called “Greater Kurdistan,” which includes the Kurdish-majority parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, behind a likeness of the pontiff.

“It is crystal-clear that what is published is against international principles and rules,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sa'eed Khatibzadeh said on Wednesday.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has issued a protest to the Iraqi government over the matter and demanded that the stamps be recalled and this unfriendly act be immediately corrected.”

Additionally on Wednesday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said that one of the KRG’s commemorative stamps shows a map that “includes some provinces in our country,” calling on Kurdish authorities to “correct the grave error.”

“Certain presumptuous authorities in the KRG dared to abuse the mentioned visit, to express their unrealistic aspirations against the territorial integrity of Iraq’s neighboring countries,” it said in a statement.

“KRG authorities are in the best position to remember the disappointing outcomes of such deceitful aims,” it added.

Similarly, the head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front released a statement, condemning the KRG’s move as “threatening to the territorial integrity of Iraq, including the governorates of Kirkuk and Mosul. This step is considered a direct threat to Iraqi, regional and international security.”

“We advise the regional government and the Kurdish political parties to preserve the security and unity of Iraq and the region and not to repeat the mistakes of the past,” he said, in a vague reference to the region’s abortive push for secession in 2017. 

ME