New Delhi, July 28 -- ANKARA - Kurdish communities that straddle the Turkey-Iraq border were not invited to the meeting. When Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi landed Monday for his inaugural official visit to Turkey, completing a diplomatic circuit through Washington and Tehran, they watched from the margins of a corridor that would run straight through their territory.

The visit centers on the Development Road, a $17 billion infrastructure project that would connect Iraq's Grand Faw Port on the Arabian Gulf north through Baghdad into Turkey, eventually linking to European rail networks. Erdogan has backed the corridor for two years as a strategic alternative to Iranian-controlled transit routes; Zaidi's arrival in Ankara signals that B...