Turkish PM calls on Kurds to support peace process with PKK

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Saturday visiting President of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government Massoud Barzani in Diyarbakir province amid efforts to end the decades-old Kurdish conflict. Speaking at the rally in the southeastern province, Erdogan welcomed the Kurdish leader by saying "Diyarbakir is the city of brotherhood. We are all eternal brothers," he said. Erdogan also called on Diyarbakir's Kurds to fully support the government's settlement process. "I want Diyarbakir "to get united against threats and sabotages" and say "enough is enough," Erdogan said in a speech he used the term "Iraqi Kurdistan" for the first time. Erdogan is being accompanied by his deputies, Bulent Arinc and Bekir Bozdag, as well as other government ministers, including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The prime minister also assured Kurds that if they stand behind the settlement process, Turkey will see Kurdish prisoners being released and those who joined the PKK coming down from mountains. Erdogan also held a separate meeting with Barzani in the evening to discuss the settlement process, the role of the PKK in settlement talks and the situation of Syrian Kurds. Erdogan had a brief meeting with Barzani at the Diyarbakir Governor's Office and the two leaders then headed to the Kantar neighborhood where they addressed locals before attending opening ceremonies of newly built facilities and participated in wedding ceremonies. For his part, Barzani said "today is a historic day." "This is a historic visit for me, we all know it would have been impossible to speak here 15 or 20 years ago," Barzani said, as members of the crowd waved green, white and orange Kurdistan flags. "Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has taken a very brave step towards peace. I want my Kurdish and Turkish brothers to support the peace process," he said. "It is now high time to be united in the Middle East. We can take our people to happy days with our unity," he said. "Long live Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood. Long live peace, long live freedom," Barzani said in Turkish. The Erdogan-Barzani meeting comes at a time when not only has the settlement process stalled, as the PKK, dissatisfied with government inaction on the democratization program that is part of the settlement process, announced in early September that it had stopped its withdrawal from the country, but also when disagreements between the KRG and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Syrian offshoot of the PKK, are deepening. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) launched the settlement process last year to resolve the country's decades-old terrorism problem and has been holding talks with Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), since then