"This weekend’s Diyarbakır visit of the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and chairman of the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Massoud Barzani, is bound to create significant outcomes in many chapters, from Turkish domestic politics to the future of the relations of the Kurds among themselves in the Middle East, and to regional power equilibriums," an article by Sedat Ergin published by Hürriyet Daily News reads.
"Of course, it would be correct to read this visit as a direct major political initiative of the host, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. With it, Erdoğan has once again demonstrated that he is a politician open to unexpected political moves," Ergin writes.
"With this latest maneuver, the prime minister is aiming to kill many birds with one stone. However, these calculations, which are expected to yield political gain, also have very serious risks," he warns.
"It is a step that can be regarded as a milestone in the history of Kurds that Barzani, after almost 20 years, will come for a high-profile visit to Diyarbakır, which is one of the most important centers of cultural and political attraction of the entire Kurdish geography. Barzani is a leader who has his mark on the historic gains of the Kurds in Iraq in the past 20 years, and it carries major symbolism that a personality who has this identity will be welcomed with the red carpet in Diyarbakır, the leading city of Kurdish identity in Turkey. The visit also shows how warm the relations between the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the KDP have become," the article reads.
"Of course, we can also say that this visit has further crystallized - not only in Turkey but also across the region - the separation and disintegration of the Kurds. We are observing today that the Kurdish geography in the Middle East is witnessing an undeclared cutthroat competition between two leaders. These two rivals are Massoud Barzani and Abdullah Öcalan, who resides in his cell at İmralı. The rivalry between the two is also seen today in the power struggle in northern Syria between the KDP and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which in line with the PKK. It is meaningful that the visit comes right after the PYD declared an interim rule in Syria the other day. In this aspect, Erdoğan has put Turkey’s weight on Barzani’s side in the power struggle in northern Syria," the author writes.
