ANKARA, Turkey — A Kurdistan flag flying side by side a Turkish flag in Turkey is “scandalous, careless, and a disgrace,” the leader of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said on Tuesday in reference to the recent visit by the Kurdish President Masoud Barzani during which the flag of Kurdistan was raised for the first time at the Istanbul airport, and displayed in the meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
The Yildirim-led ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) defended the decision to welcome Barzani with the Kurdish flag saying that Kurdistan is an entity recognized worldwide.
“This is Iraq’s own internal affair, it does not directly concern us,” MHP leader Devlet Bahceli said, addressing his party’s members of parliament. “But the same flag being raised as equal to the Turkish flag in Turkey is scandalous, careless and a disgrace."
“We have absolutely no toleration of seeing Barzani’s flag in our homeland, in the prime minister’s offices,” Bahceli added.
Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmet Yıldız welcomed President Barzani on Sunday, while for the first time, the Turkish side raised a Kurdish flag at the airport, a signal of friendship noticed by the visiting delegation.
“The visit was simultaneous with raising the flag of Kurdistan at the Istanbul airport,” a statement from the Kurdish presidency read.
“Who let this so-called flag flutter in Istanbul? How long has Turkey recognized the flag of the Peshmerga remnants who are talking about a referendum for independence in northern Iraq and giving opinions about the release of arrested HDP deputies?” Bahceli said, in reference to the Kurdistan Region’s long pursuit of independence and a future referendum on this matter, and Barzani’s call for the release of the co-leader of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
The row between the the MHP and AKP come as both sides have joined forces to support the constitutional changes which pave the way for an executive presidency instead of the current parliamentary system, planned for a referendum by the Turkish people in mid-April.
PM Yıldırım responded that Bahceli’s criticism is not well-intended, saying that showing the flag of Kurdistan in public places is not a “new custom,” and that Kurdistan Region is recognized throughout the world as “an autonomous structure with its own parliament, prime minister, ministers and its own flag.”
“Turkey respects the territorial integrity of Iraq and the Iraqi constitution,” Yilidirim told his party's MPs on Tuesday. “We cannot and have not been developing other diplomatic customs or putting forward new procedures.”
President Barzani met with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Sunday, and PM Yildirim the day after, in what the Kurdish president described as “very good” and satisfactory.
“The meetings were very good. We are very satisfied of the meetings,” Barzani told Rudaw on Monday after the meeting with the Turkish PM, adding that “there was good understanding.”
“This person [Barzani] must first give account for the support he has given to the PKK and for our martyrs, paying the price for the traps he set in Turkey,” Bahçeli said, claiming that the Kurdish president has shown support for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a recognized terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU, and the United States.
The PKK leadership has taken the mountainous Qandil region in the Kurdistan Region as its headquarters since 1990s, an area that borders Turkey.
