Barzani should be seized, brought to Turkey if necessary: MHP head

ANKARA

Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani should be detained and brought to Turkey if necessary, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has said, blasting Barzani for the “deployment of the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK” in Kirkuk.

“If necessary, Barzani should be detained and brought [to Turkey]. A military intervention that will prevent the PKK from gaining field domination in the Turkish homeland should be initiated from land or air without fear,” Bahçeli said on Oct. 17, addressing his party group at parliament.

“The PKK’s nesting in Kirkuk, following Kandil and Sinjar, is a matter of national security for Iraq, the region, and for Turkey. Whatever the circumstances, the PKK-Barzani alliance targets the homes of Turkmens,” he added.

“Barzani is watching out for Kurdistan with the traitorous aims of the PKK … and sees the Sept. 25 [independence referendum] as a step to this is an enemy in the fullest sense,” Bahçeli added.

His comments came after Kirkuk, one of the disputed regions between the KRG and the Iraqi central government, was taken under the control of Iraqi forces.

Bahçeli referred to the Iraqi National Security Council’s declaration on Oct. 16 that “it viewed the presence of elements not belonging to the regular security forces in Kirkuk,” including the PKK, “a declaration of war.”

The MHP head said his party considers the Iraqi forces’ retaking of Kirkuk “a pleasing development.”

“The armed peshmerga remnants, along with the PKK’s murderers, should be pursued to wherever they will run. They should be exterminated wherever they are captured,” Bahçeli said.