ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani has called for the release of imprisoned politicians in Turkey. “In the interest of peace in Turkey, it would be better for him and other arrested politicians to be released,” Barzani said in reference to Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He praised the role of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has shown “much courage,” adding that he was the only politician who could bring peace between Turks and Kurds. But he criticized recent developments in Turkey, calling for the release of opposition politicians detained in the country. The decades-long conflict between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) was reignited nearly two years ago. In the spring of 2016, the Turkish parliament voted to lift immunity from a select group of lawmakers including many HDP MPs accused of supporting terrorism and the PKK. Demirtas was sentenced to five months in jail earlier this month on charges of “insulting the Turkish nation.” He is also facing other charges in pending cases and prosecutors have recommended he serve between 43 and 142 years in prison. His co-chair, Figen Yuksekdag, was stripped of per parliamentary seat this week after an appeals court confirmed her 2016 conviction for terrorism-related charges. She is serving 10 months in prison. Members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) accuse the pro-Kurdish HDP of having ties with the PKK, a named terrorist organization in Turkey. In a recent interview with French paper Le Monde, Barzani said that if Turkish authorities asked, he would be ready to help restart peace talks between Ankara and the PKK, “but that request has to come from Ankara.” Barzani will visit Turkey on Sunday to discuss a range of issues with Erdogan, including border security, the economy, cultural and humanitarian issues.
