Barzani voices support to Kurdish peace process

ARBIL – Anadolu Agency

Talabani returned to Iraq over the weekend for the first time since he suffered a stroke and was flown abroad for medical treatment 18 months ago. DHA Photo

Independent Diyarbakır deputy Leyla Zana and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder have met with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as part of their a week-long visit to northern Iraq.

Barzani told Zana and Önder that the KRG was ready to support the ongoing peace process in Turkey. The KRG is ready “to give necessary support for the success of the peace process,” he said, adding that the recent legal amendments for the process were also significant.

Talabani returned to Iraq over the weekend for the first time since he suffered a stroke and was flown abroad for medical treatment 18 months ago. His health appears to be in a good condition judging from the photos he appeared in with the two visiting Turkish deputies.

Zana and Önder were also set to hold a meeting with KRG President Masoud Barzani during the visit.

While in Arbil, they will also gather with Kurdish political institutions, parties and executives in order to convey the views of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), regarding the Kurdish National Congress and regional developments, particularly regarding Rojava, the Kurdish part of northern Syria, the statement said.

Zana and Önder traveled to İmralı Island prison in the Marmara Sea on July 10 to visit Öcalan, who has been serving a life sentence there since he was captured in 1999.

Öcalan has been in dialogue with both state officials and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), and later also with its sister party, the HDP, since late 2012, as part of the peace process intended to end the three-decade-long conflict between Turkey’s security forces and the PKK.