Ocalan Letter Asks Barzani Support in Rojava, Peace Process
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, has asked Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani to back Kurdish autonomy in Syria and the PKK’s peace process with Ankara, the head of Turkey’s largest Kurdish party disclosed. Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) that brokered the peace deal between Ocalan and Ankara last year, said the appeals come in a letter to Barzani. “The letter asks Barzani to support the Kurds in Syria and the peace process in Turkey,” Demirtas told MPs from his party on Thursday. Ties between the Kurdistan Region and the pro-PKK Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has declared unilateral autonomy in Syria’s Kurdish regions (Rojava), have been strained. The PKK and Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have also been traditional rivals. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil has rejected the declaration of autonomy by the PYD. Leyla Zana, a Kurdish MP from the city