ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani is playing “a valuable role” in the ongoing peace process between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a leading figure from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party spearheading the push confirmed to Rudaw on Monday.
“The esteemed Nechirvan Barzani is playing a valuable role,” said Sirri Sakik, a lawmaker from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), underlining that a peace process excluding the Kurdistan Region “in its proceedings would face many difficulties and risks.”
He further underscored the Region’s efforts in “facilitating meetings and engaging multiple personalities to ease tensions are very important for the process.”
The remarks follow President Barzani’s reaffirmation of support for the Ankara-PKK peace process. Speaking at the International Peace and Democratic Society Conference in Istanbul on Saturday, the Kurdistan Region President further stated that “violence and conflict have brought nothing but destruction and backwardness to peoples.”
The conference was organized by the DEM Party, which has been serving as the main mediator between the PKK and the Turkish state. Amid the progress, the PKK has in recent months announced its dissolution, agreed to lay down arms and withdrawn from several strategic positions along the Kurdistan Region’s border with Turkey.
However, the group has criticized the Turkish state for not taking sufficient reciprocal steps, particularly on sensitive issues such as the fate of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the group’s veteran fighters.
Amid the ongoing back-and-forth, Sakik emphasized the importance of the Kurdistan Region’s parties participating in the peace process.
“In my view, they serve as facilitators, mediators, and supporters,” he said, noting that “Turkey does not accept any country as a third party in this process.” Nonetheless, the DEM Party delegation has visited the Kurdistan Region, conducting “important meetings” with the Kurdish parties.
In mid-February, a DEM Party delegation met with senior Kurdish leaders in the Kurdistan Region, including President Barzani. The delegation further met President Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and his Deputy Qubad Talabani, who is also a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, as well as the PUK’s leader Bafel Talabani.
Founded in 1978, the PKK originally sought to establish an independent Kurdish state. It has since shifted its focus toward securing political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.
The four-decade conflict between Turkey and the PKK has claimed nearly 40,000 lives.