KDP and PUK delegations meet in Erbil to discuss recent PKK clashes

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Delegations from Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) met in Erbil on Monday to discuss the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) presence in the Kurdistan Region following a recent attack on Peshmerga forces in Duhok province. 

The PUK delegation, led by the party’s co-chair Bafel Talabani and the KDP delegation, led by Hoshiar Zebari are meeting for the first time in three months in an attempt to resolve their differences.

“A topic we disagree on is the case of the PKK presence in the region,” KDP politburo member Aras Haso Mirkhan told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman in a Monday interview. “We want to find a way to address this issue today and sort out our differences.”

Tensions are rising in the Kurdistan Region between KDP and PKK officials after KDP leader Masoud Barzani released a statement on November 2, saying the PKK had invaded Kurdistan Region border areas and disputed territory during the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). 

“PKK fighters invaded these border areas and then some others instead of supporting the experience of the Kurdistan Region,” Barzani said in his statement.

On November 4, an IED attack claimed by the PKK targeted KDP Peshmerga forces in Chamanke district of Amedi, Duhok province. One Peshmerga fighter was killed. 

The recent clashes between PKK forces and Peshmerga have worried locals. The former is an armed group fighting for increased cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey, and has bases in the Kurdistan Region’s Qandil mountains. 

The PKK, KDP, and PUK went through years of conflict and fighting throughout the  1990s.

The last time the two parties met was on August 11th and both parties reaffirmed their commitment to a 2019  governance agreement.

The KDP and PUK signed a four-year 18-point landmark political agreement on March 4, 2019 for the joint governing of the Region, and the strengthening of Kurdish political unity.
 
The agreement came in hopes of replacing the “strategic agreement” of 2005, which united the Kurdistan Region under one KRG administration.