2008 Turkish incursion into northern Iraq day of the operation, Turkish President Abdullah Gül made a telephone call to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, to brief him on the details of the incursion. He also invited Talabani to come to Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on the night the ground operation began, and later U.S. President George W. Bush. The United States was guarded in its response to the incursion, requesting that Turkey take care to only target the PKK, to "limit the scope and duration of their operations," and to work with Iraqi
2014 Turkish presidential election Agency. These two agencies usually disagreed with each other's figures throughout counting. Due to potential influences by Kurdish separatists in Diyarbakır, the Turkish Armed Forces transported ballot papers for counting via army helicopter. Both Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu voted in Istanbul, while Selahattin Demirtaş voted in Diyarbakır. There was heavy media speculation in regards to who Abdullah Gül, the outgoing president, voted for. Despite being a former AKP politician, an apparent rift between him and Erdoğan placed his voting intentions in doubt. Rumours had surfaced during the campaign that Gül had initially recommended Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu to MHP leader