Gov’t defer to Barzani, CHP says

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Turkish government’s incorrect policies on Syria have forced it to become dependent on northern Iraq’s Kurdish leader, according to an opposition party official.

“The government has made itself the apprentice of [Kurdistan Regional Government] (KRG) leader Masoud] Barzani regarding foreign policy,” Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) parliamentary group deputy leader Akif Hamzaçebi told reporters yesterday in criticizing the government for asking Barzani to help solve problems with northern Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy leader Emin Haluk Ayhan, meanwhile, questioned Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s sanity. “[Davutoğlu’s] likening of himself to Aleppo by saying ‘everyone is bombing me’ is an indication that he has been already off the track.” Turkey’s foreign policy is between a rock and a hard place, he also said.