HDP requests support from KRG’s ‘brother Masoud’

The meeting at Barzani’s presidential office in Saladin lasted around five hours and was “very positive and warm,” Erdoğmuş told the Doğan News Agency. 

“The parties had no demands from each other. But solutions and the attitude to problems were discussed. President Barzani called our co-chair ‘my [little] brother,’ while Demirtaş called him ‘my [elder] brother,’” he added. 

“We expect President Barzani to make efforts for a restart of the peace process [in Turkey] and to support the dialogue between the parties as a brother,” Rudaw quoted Demirtaş as saying in the meeting, referring to talks between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which broke down in the summer of 2015 with new clashes. 

“President Barzani warmly welcomed the delegation and stated that he hopes that the peace process between the government of Turkey and the large Kurdish population will resume for the benefit of all Kurds and Turks,” Barzani’s office said in a statement. 

“It is only through peaceful means that the Kurds of Turkey can further obtain their cultural and political rights,” it added. 

“The president also noted that the [KRG] has consistently attempted to convince both the government of Turkey and the Kurdish political forces there to work on strengthening the peace process for the sake of the well-being of all of the citizens of Turkey,” the statement read. 

“Mr. Demirtaş thanked the President for his past and present efforts at supporting the peace process in Turkey and agreed that the fighting for the rights of the Kurds should be done politically and inside the Parliament building in Ankara and not at the expense of the lives of Kurds and Turks,” it added.