Barham Salih hopes Erdogan election a step towards renewing peace process

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Barham Salih, the head of the Coalition for Democracy and Justice, extended his congratulations to Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his success in the Turkish presidential election.

“I hope regaining people's confidence is a step towards strengthening democracy further and restarting the peace process,” Salih said in a party tweet.

Salih, who heads the newly-founded opposition CDJ in the Kurdistan Region, was the prime minister of the Sualimani administration from 2001-2004.

“Past experience has proven that peace and stability in the area is in the security, political, and economic interests of all the neighborly nations,” Salih added.

Salih broke away from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), historically the second largest party in the Region. The CDJ and PUK are based in Sulaimani and Erdogan's government has refused to allow flights between Turkey and Sulaimani because of claims of parties there being complicit with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

In 2012, Erdogan as prime minister opened peace talks with the PKK, who agreed to withdraw their armed forces from Turkey, bringing hope of an end to the decades-long conflict that left more than 40,000 dead.

Erdogan said in March 2013 that he was ready to discuss a transition to a more federal system, saying “If you look to the strong Ottoman Empire, there was a Lazistan state and a Kurdistan state.”

The ceasefire ended in 2015 after rising tensions and Turkish bombing PKK positions in Iraq.

Turkish armed forces are conducting an offensive against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region. They have pushed at least 30 kilometers across the border, aiming for the PKK's headquarters in the Qandil Mountains.

 

Erdogan secured 52.38 percent of the presidential vote, according to results released by state-run Anadolu Agency. His AKP party won 295 seats. Together with the Nationalist Movement Party's (MHP) 67 seats, as a part of the People's Alliance, they will control the majority of the Grand National Assembly's 600 seats.

Salih also congratulated the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) that surpassed the 10 percent threshold to enter parliament.

CDJ won two seats in Iraq's parliamentary election on May 12. They and five other parties from the Kurdistan Region have alleged voter fraud in many northern and Kurdistani provinces.