President Barzani meets with President Erdogan

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Kurdish President Masoud Barzani met with  Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, late on Sunday afternoon in Istanbul, where they were expected to discuss a range of topics including the economy and border security. 

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesperson Safeen Dizayee, accompanying Barzani, told Rudaw the visit is upon Turkey's invitation; additionally, Barzani will meet Turkish PM Binali Yildirim in Ankara. 

They will also discuss Syria, where Turkey has asked for a no-fly zone, and the possible return of thousands of Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (PDKS) Peshmerga forces into the Kurdish enclave in the country, according to Rudaw reporters in Istanbul.

Regarding the economy, they will discuss the agreement between Iran and Iraq to study an oil pipeline from Kirkuk, according to Rudaw reporters in Istanbul. Kirkuk currently sends oil through a KRG pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

"A range of questions are going to be discussed. Iraqi is important in every aspect, whether it is in terms of economy, border security or humanitarian and cultural sides," Ibrahim Kalin, spokesperson of the Turkish presidency, said in a newsconference earlier this week.

Relations between the PDKS, which is largely supported by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and the ruling Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Rojava have remained strained as the PYD-led government has so far refused entrance for the PDKS Peshmerga forces into Rojava.

More than half of the construction of a concrete wall on the Turkish-Syrian border was completed, Anadolu Agency reported on Sunday.

“The construction works of about 221 km part are ongoing [with 290 kilometers finished] and we will complete it as soon as possible,” Anadolu reported Ergun Turan, the head of Turkey’s housing agency, as saying.

It is likely that the topic of the detentions of Kurdish officials in Turkey will be discussed between the two leaders.

Speaking to Rudaw TV on Saturday, Lazgin Botan, a People’s Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentarian in Turkey, appreciated Barzani’s call for the release of his party’s jailed leaders and politicians, describing Barzani as an influential and international leader.
 
“Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region, is known on an international level and has his own position. And his demand for releasing Salahattin Demirtas [co-leader of the HDP] is not meddling in Turkey’s affairs,” Botan said.
 
“Barzani has influence on the Kurdish nation and even Justice and Development Party (AKP) and his demand is right," Botan claimed, referring to strong bilateral relations between Barzani and Turkish officials of the ruling AKP.

The comments came after Barzani called for the release of imprisoned Turkish politicians in Turkey.

“In the interest of peace in Turkey, it would be better for him and other arrested politicians to be released,” Barzani said in reference to Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-chair of the HDP in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

He praised the role of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has shown “much courage,” adding that he was the only politician who could bring peace between Turks and Kurds. But he criticized recent developments in Turkey, calling for the release of opposition politicians detained in the country.

Turkish authorities also recently extended curfews in nine villages in Mardin province and in 10 districts in Diyarbakir province indefinitely, the Diyarbakir governor's office said.

Barzani and Erdogan last met in Turkey in August 2016.