ANKARA 

Turkey on Wednesday strongly criticized northern Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) over its controversial attempt to print a commemorative stamp to mark Pope Francis' visit.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that one of the commemorative stamps that are planned to be printed depicts a map which includes some provinces of Turkey, and called on the KRG officials to "immediately reverse the grave mistake."

"Certain presumptuous authorities in KRG dared to abuse the mentioned visit to express their unrealistic aspirations against the territorial integrity of Iraq’s neighboring countries," read the statement.

It added: "KRG authorities are in the best position to remember the disappointing outcomes of such deceitful aims."

The pope’s four-day historic visit from March 5 to 8 covered five Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, Erbil, Mosul, Najaf, and Nasiriyah.

It was the first-ever papal visit to Iraq and the pontiff's first foreign tour since the global outbreak of the coronavirus in December 2019.

Pope Francis held a historic meeting on Saturday with Al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shia cleric, in the southern city of Najaf.

Government gives due response

Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, also refuted the claims that the government and its ally in People's Alliance Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) did not show due reaction to the stamp in question.

“Such rag maps are void before the power of the Republic of Turkey,” he said on Twitter.

He reiterated Turkey’s position against such a project which is against the country’s territorial integrity.

MHP leader Devlet Bahceli also took to Twitter and said: “No one can shake finger at us about depiction of so-called Kurdistan map on the stamp [planned to be] printed to commemorate Pope [Francis’] visit to northern Iraq.”