Barzani meets with Turkish PM and president

Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--President of the Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani, arrived in Ankara and met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday.

Barzani and Erdogan held wide-ranging discussions in a nearly two hour-long meeting that took place in the Bestepe Presidential Complex in Ankara. 

They discussed the closure of schools in the Kurdistan Region tied to the Gulen movement, Kurdish groups in Turkey and Syria – the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the upcoming offensive to liberate Mosul from Islamic State (ISIS), and Turkey’s role in the war on ISIS, according to Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah.

Barzani’s meetings with the Turkish leaders also addressed measures to be taken at their shared border. According to the Daily Sabah, Turkey is looking to avoid a possible influx of approximately 1.5 million people entering its territory.

 


 
The Kurdistan Region Presidency in a statement on Tuesday explained the goal of the visit was to discuss political and economic ties, and latest developments in the region.  

Barzani is also scheduled to visit the Turkish parliament on Wednesday. He is likely to meet with leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to discuss the PKK-Ankara peace process, but this is not confirmed.

US Vice President Joe Biden and Iraq’s Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri are also expected to be in Ankara this week where they will meet with the country’s top officials.
 
Barzani has visited Turkey several times in the last 15 years. In his last visit, in December 2015, he met with Erdogan and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to discuss bilateral relations.