President Masoud Barzani received Turkiye’s Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) delegation headed by Pervin Buldan and Sirri Sureyya Onder in Salahaddin on Sunday, February 16, 2025, and expressed his support for a new peace process in Turkiye.
The Barzani Headquarters in a readout said that during the meeting the guest delegation conveyed its perspective on the political situation and the peace process in Turkiye to President Barzani, and reviewed the results of its meetings with the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The delegation conveyed the content of Ocalan’s message to President Barzani. The DEM Party delegation met with Ocalan twice in recent weeks and is expected to meet him again after their return to Turkiye.
For his part, President Barzani welcomed the guest delegation, stressing the importance of the peace process as the only correct way to reach solutions, and stressed the need for all parties to intensify their efforts and endeavors to enable the peace process to achieve the desired results.
President Barzani receives Imrali delegation
— KDP ForeignRelations (@kdpfro) February 16, 2025
President Masoud Barzani received the Imrali delegation headed by Ms. Pervin Buldan and Mr. Siri Sureya Onder in Salahaddin on Sunday, February 16, 2025.
During the meeting, the guest delegation conveyed its views and perspectives… pic.twitter.com/31WT0mY0TH
President Barzani also expressed his full readiness to provide assistance and support to the peace process in Turkiye.
Currently, there are renewed discussions in Turkiye about initiating a new peace process between Turkiye and the PKK, sparked by a call from Devlet Bahceli, leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), for PKK leader Ocalan to address Turkiye’s parliament and declare the end of the armed struggle of the PKK.
It is expected that Ocalan will release a message for peace this month, or on March 21 during Newroz.
Under the supervision of President Masoud Barzani, on Saturday, February 15, 2025, the Central Committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party also discussed the importance of reviving the peace process in Turkey.
The meeting stressed the need for collaboration and constructive dialogue, urging all parties to prioritize national interests over factional concerns.
Read More: We Should Work For Peace: Former Turkish PM Davutoglu
Last year in an interview with Kurdistan Chronicle on the sidelines of the Fifth Middle East Peace and Security Forum, Turkiye’s Former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he hopes that one day President Masoud Barzani will come back to Turkiye to lend support to a new peace process in Turkiye.
“We should work for that. We can come to Erbil, and he can come to Diyarbakir. There is no difference,” Davutoglu said.
Between 2009 and 2015, a previous peace process between Turkiye and the PKK was supported by Kurdish leaders in the Kurdistan Region.
On November 16, 2013, President Barzani voiced strong support for Turkiye’s peace efforts during a joint rally with Turkiye’s then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Diyarbakir and Kurdish singers Ibrahim Tatlises and Sivan Perwer, urging Kurds and Turks alike to back the peace initiative.
