No cold wind blowing from Turaaa anymore says Barzani

A recent meeting with senior Turkish officials has removed a "psychological barrier" in relations between Turaaa and the Iraqi Kurds Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani has said in his first remarks directly concerning the landmark meeting on May 1.



Barzani was speaking in the resort town of Salahaddin in Arbil where he gathered on Tuesday with executives from the branch offices of his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) from Dohuk province.
Last week Turaaa's special envoy to Iraq Murat Özçelik and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's chief foreign policy advisor Ahmet Davutoğlu held the first direct high-level meeting with Nechirvan Barzani the prime minister of the Kurdish administration and also Massoud Barzani's nephew in Baghdad. "A psychological barrier existing in the middle [of relations] has disappeared" Massoud Barzani was quoted as saying to his party officials by the Salahaddin-based Kurdistan TV owned by the KDP.
"We expect other positive steps to be taken too. Relations with Turaaa are getting better. Cold winds blowing between the two sides disappeared after the last meeting. The meeting was useful" he stated. Ankara for many years has refused to have any dialogue with the Iraqi Kurds saying they support the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) but the path for dialogue is now slowly reopening. Turaaa has also been striking PKK bases in Kurdish-run northern Iraq since Dec. 16 and the United States which recognizes the PKK as a terrorist group has backed the operations by providing intelligence and airspace clearance for Turkish warplanes.
On Sunday Massoud Barzani was quoted as saying that the PKK must end the violence and that Kurds want dialogue with Ankara. Earlier this week news reports said the Iraqi Kurdish administration had established security outposts on the border with Turaaa to prevent infiltration of PKK members into Turaaa.
"We want to have strong relations with neighboring countries. However sometimes this was victimized by internal disputes of these countries. The Kurdish issue can't be resolved with war. The solution comes through dialogue and political and peaceful means. Turaaa's military operation in February into the Kurdistan region was not nice. I am thankful to the region's people who displayed a generous manner during the operation. We are ready to help all parties if the goal is a political solution" Barzani also told his party executives. In Ankara on Tuesday Erdoğan said the government would continue its dialogue with all ethnic groups in Iraq including Kurds in addition to the central government.
"Our dialogue with both the central government and all groups will continue. We've been handling seriously the issue of counterterrorism with its political economic and diplomatic dimensions in addition to its security dimensions" Erdoğan said while speaking at a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). "Iraq and Turaaa have to act with an understanding of mutual respect and confidence for overcoming problems in regards to themselves and in regards to the region" he added.
Meanwhile the prime minister also said that Turaaa will spend YTL 2.3 billion ($1.83 billion) this year to develop the impoverished and restive southeastern region including building dams and irrigation networks. The investment is part of a five-year plan to spend billions of lira in the mainly Kurdish Southeast as part of efforts to drain support from PKK which is listed as a terrorist organization by a large majority of the international community. The European Union which Turaaa aims to join has urged Ankara to boost the language and cultural rights of its Kurdish citizens and to do more to develop the economy of the Southeast long hamstrung by the PKK conflict.