KDP, PUK slated to thaw ice at Saturday meeting
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —The ruling Kurdish KDP and PUK parties are scheduled to hold a long-delayed meeting next Saturday in a bid to ease tensions between the rivals, according to a top KDP leader.
"Next Saturday, both parties' politburos will be meeting at the office of the Kurdistan Region’s President Nechirvan Barzani [in Erbil]," Fazil Mirani, head of the KDP politburo, told Rudaw on Tuesday.
The meeting is aimed at repairing the ties severed during an ongoing, potentially explosive near two month-long standoff in Erbil province’s Zini Warte, between rival Peshmerga units affiliated with the KDP dominant in Erbil, and the PUK, dominant in Sulaimani, as well as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group fighting for greater cultural and political rights of Kurds in neighbouring Turkey.
Zini Warte lies at a highly strategic crossroads, near a historic KDP-PUK demarcation, and close to the Qandil mountains, where the PKK has been headquartered for decades.
Both the KDP and PUK, along with their affiliated security forces dominate their own respective spheres of geographical and economic influence inside the Kurdistan Region – a remnant of the brutal civil war of the 1990s. They have since worked together to govern the autonomous Region.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has warned against any attempt at splitting the Kurdistan Region into two administrations.
A main factor which has led to party talks or gatherings to be cancelled, has been a lockdown and curfew since early March to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
"Next Saturday, both parties' politburos will be meeting at the office of the Kurdistan Region’s President Nechirvan Barzani [in Erbil]," Fazil Mirani, head of the KDP politburo, told Rudaw on Tuesday.
The meeting is aimed at repairing the ties severed during an ongoing, potentially explosive near two month-long standoff in Erbil province’s Zini Warte, between rival Peshmerga units affiliated with the KDP dominant in Erbil, and the PUK, dominant in Sulaimani, as well as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group fighting for greater cultural and political rights of Kurds in neighbouring Turkey.
Zini Warte lies at a highly strategic crossroads, near a historic KDP-PUK demarcation, and close to the Qandil mountains, where the PKK has been headquartered for decades.
Both the KDP and PUK, along with their affiliated security forces dominate their own respective spheres of geographical and economic influence inside the Kurdistan Region – a remnant of the brutal civil war of the 1990s. They have since worked together to govern the autonomous Region.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has warned against any attempt at splitting the Kurdistan Region into two administrations.
A main factor which has led to party talks or gatherings to be cancelled, has been a lockdown and curfew since early March to prevent the spread of COVID-19.