ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – On the second day of Turkish airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani urged both sides to resort to peaceful means and preserve the Kurds’ recent political gains in Turkey.
“What you can achieve through peace won’t be achieved through fighting,” Barzani said in a personal message, explaining he wanted to clarify his and Kurdistan’s role in helping the PKK negotiate peace with Ankara.
His message came as Turkey carried out a number of airstrikes against PKK positions in the Qandil Mountains for a second day.
“I found it necessary to express my own attitude regarding the PKK-Turkey tensions, because there were wrong interpretations and information being given in my name,” Barzani said in his late night message.
”I am not interested in conflict, and I have never supported it even for a second,” he said.
Barzani noted that the Kurds had made headway in their pursuit of greater political and cultural rights in Turkey with the creation of the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), which brought the Kurdish cause to the center stage.
“If we look at Turkey’s situation in a realistic way, we see that before the emergence of the AKP the name of the Kurds and Kurdistan was prohibited in Turkey,” Barzani said.
“We did our best to make a peace process in Turkey would bring rival parties together,” he said, applauding Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for pursuing a different viewpoint towards Kurds from that of previous Turkish parties.
Barzani declared that, “for me, the Kurdish case is above everything.”
He added that the Kurdistan Region was not responsible the policies of Turkey or the PKK.
“Concerning the attitude of Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party, we do not represent Turkey’s politics and we are not responsible for the PKK’s politics. What we can offer is to help get them together to settle their issues through dialogue and mutual understanding.”
“I want to say something for history,” Barzani said. “We saw a positive attitude and steps being taken by Turkey’s government, but unfortunately, some parties became too arrogant.
“Many times we sent messages to the PKK to remain patient and wait, because the peace process takes time and is not an easy process. We told them that the killing of two policemen will not solve any problems with Turkey.
“The best opportunity of recent times is solving issues through negotiation, election, education and the pen,” Barzani urged.
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