ANKARA: Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government President Nechirvan Barzani met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday.

The visit, just days before the KRG parliamentary elections on Oct. 20, coincided with heated debates within Turkiye after President Erdogan recently hinted at the possibility of a new Kurdish peace process.

“We are always ready to resolve issues through non-terrorist methods,” he said.

On Oct. 1, in a surprising move, the leader of Turkey’s nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahceli, shook hands and spoke briefly with pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party deputies at the Turkish parliament’s opening ceremony.

From his side, Barzani’s visit also marks a further step in his ongoing efforts to persuade the authorities to lift a flight ban on Sulaymaniya International Airport in Iraq which has been in place since April 2023.

Galip Dalay, a senior consulting fellow at the London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House, said the Kurdistan Democratic Party remained Turkiye’s closest ally, not only in Iraqi Kurdistan but across Iraq’s political landscape.

“Within the KDP, Nechirvan Barzani is the most attuned to Ankara’s priorities, understanding the importance of maintaining strong bilateral ties,” Dalay told Arab News.

Ahead of Iraq’s regional elections, Ankara appears to favor the KDP over the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which has closer affiliations with the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party.

“The PUK aligns more with factions connected to the PKK, while the KDP positions itself as an adversary to the militant group. Turkiye seeks a stronger KDP presence, viewing it as a pragmatic partner in the region’s complex equation,” Dalay said, adding any progress on the Kurdish issue would require Ankara to have a well-crafted regional Kurdish policy, in which the KDP could play an important role.

Barzani’s trip to Turkiye comes six months after Erdogan visited Baghdad and Erbil.

“Nechirvan Barzani is a regional leader who frequently engages with Turkiye. On March 1, he met with President Erdogan on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, and they met again during Erdogan’s visit to Erbil on April 22,” Mehmet Alaca, a Turkiye-based expert on Iraq, told Arab News.

Experts suggest Barzani could play a crucial mediating role in any revived Kurdish peace process. Previously, the ruling Justice and Development Party took steps towards this in 2013-2015, but this failed. It was followed by an intense armed conflict in the southeast of Turkiye, with PKK offshoots in Syria expanding their territories amid the civil war there.

Alaca said Barzani’s latest visit was particularly significant given the ongoing discussions about a Kurdish peace initiative in Turkiye and the upcoming KRG elections.

“The role of Iraqi Kurdish leaders as mediators during past Kurdish peace efforts is well-documented. In this context, it is likely that the PKK’s presence in northern Iraq and the Kurdish peace initiative stand as key topics during the visit,” he said.

Alaca also suggested that Barzani, as a conciliatory figure, could put pressure on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan over its relationship with the PKK, given Turkiye’s longstanding concerns about these ties.

“Barzani could act as a mediator or take the initiative on this issue,” he said.

He added that Ankara valued the political role of Iraqi Turkmens in the KRG, pointing out a Turkmen minister was appointed to the last cabinet under pressure from Turkiye: “Such matters could also be part of the discussions.”

Meanwhile, the stalled oil pipeline, shut down in March 2023, is a prominent issue on the bilateral agenda.

“Ankara has expressed its readiness to reopen the pipeline but has urged Erbil and Baghdad to resolve their differences. With relations between Ankara and Baghdad on the upswing, the KRG may look to Turkiye to help persuade the Iraqi government on the matter,” Alaca explained.

He added the visit reinforced Turkiye’s support for the more moderate Nechirvan Barzani block within the KDP, as opposed to the nationalist bloc led by his rival, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

Dr. Bilgay Duman, coordinator of Iraq studies at the Ankara-based ORSAM think tank, thinks Barzani and the KDP are seeking support with the looming KRG parliamentary elections.

“The KDP has been under significant pressure recently, facing mounting challenges from both Baghdad and the PUK,” he told Arab News.

“The party is also struggling to secure the backing it once had from the West and the US, with the upcoming US elections in November adding to the uncertainty. In this context, Turkiye emerges as the safest and most reliable ally. This visit should be interpreted with that in mind.”

Experts note that key issues such as the continuation of oil exports, easing tensions with Baghdad, and counterterrorism efforts are likely on the bilateral agenda, but the emphasis now is on getting diplomatic support for the KDP on the regional landscape.

“Just yesterday, KDP President Masoud Barzani held a major rally at (an) election campaign event in Erbil, a city of strategic importance for Turkiye. Although it is too early to predict how negotiations with the PUK might unfold, it seems clear that the KDP may not secure enough seats to form a government on its own, potentially requiring a rebalancing of the KDP-PUK power dynamics,” Duman said.

“Although Turkiye does not have a direct preference, Nechirvan Barzani’s relationship with Turkiye stands out as particularly significant for the upcoming government formation processes.”

The lifting of the flight ban Duman doesn’t expect the lifting of the flight ban on Sulaymaniya International Airport any time soon, he added, as that would largely depend on the PUK’s stance toward the PKK; the ban’s main objective was to curb PKK activity in the region.

Meanwhile, Turkiye has stepped up cross-border operations against the PKK, focusing since mid-June on areas with a heightened risk of PKK militancy such as Duhok province in northern Iraq.

In terms of joint counterterrorism efforts, Duman said Turkiye had already established a tripartite strategic mechanism within the Ankara-Baghdad-Erbil triangle that included intelligence sharing with Erbil, along with the establishment of a joint coordination and operations center.