“The winter is in the past, spring is arriving. Our relations are being restored,” Barzani said in an interview with CNN Türk, broadcast yesterday. He also said he wanted top-level contacts with Turkey, noting that he was ready to visit Turkey any time. “We want to further improve our ties,” he said.
Relations between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, once friendly, grew strained following the US-led war on Iraq in 2003 due to the presence of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Kurdish-administered northern Iraq. Ankara refused dialogue with the Kurdish leaders, and the military conducted numerous cross-border operations, including a major ground incursion in February 2008, against PKK targets in northern Iraq. But the trend has shifted since then, with Turkish officials holding public talks with Kurdish leaders and the Kurdish authorities joining efforts by Turkey, the US and the Iraqi central government to eliminate the PKK.
Barzani said in the interview that the PKK must lay down its arms but added that Turkey also should take some steps to pave the way for a resolution of the PKK problem. He also insisted that relations between Iraqi Kurds and Turkey should not be limited to the PKK issue. “We don't believe it is right to reduce our relations to the PKK or efforts to bring its members down from the mountains. Of course, there will be positive implications if PKK members come down from the mountains, but you should know this well: We are not responsible for the PKK's policies,” Barzani said.
The government has recently launched reform plans as part of a drive commonly known as the Kurdish initiative. The content of the initiative has not yet been fully disclosed, but officials have ruled out an amnesty for PKK leaders. Barzani gave full support to the initiative: “The policy that Turkey has begun to implement will stop the war. It is worth commending. … We fully support this policy,” Barzani said, adding that the initiative would help regional peace and stability.
But he also called on Turkey to stop military operations. “We don't support any military operation,” he said, and added that Ankara must take steps, apparently including an amnesty for PKK members, for its reform efforts to succeed.
