In his first public comments after a meeting with Turkish officials last week, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said the contact removed obstacles standing in the way of dialogue with Ankara and that the sides have turned a new page in ties.”The walls between us have been brought down. The channels are open for dialogue,” Barzani told reporters in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil. “Before, Turkey refused to have any kind of contact with us. Now, Ankara has taken a step to improve relations with us and the Baghdad government.”

Turkey’s special envoy to Iraq Murat Özçelik and Foreign Ministry bureaucrats met with Barzani in Baghdad last week, the first public contact with the Kurdish leader since the US-led war on Iraq. No detail concerning the content of talks has been revealed but both sides said the meeting was positive. Barzani said neither the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) presence in northern Iraq nor any other issue were specifically on the agenda, adding that problems will be discussed in more detail in future talks.

“The meeting was a beginning. This is a beginning to find positive solutions to problems between us,” he said. Barzani also said the talks will continue but did not elaborate on the timing or level of the new talks. “These will be announced later. But talks will take place both here and in Turkey,” he said.

The PKK presence in Kurdish-run northern Iraq has been a major irritant in Turkey’s ties with the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration that runs the mountainous region. Ankara has long accused Barzani of supporting the PKK and had refused to have dialogue unless he proved his commitment to help Turkey in its fight with the terrorist group.

But the no-talk policy is apparently changing. In May, Özçelik and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s foreign policy advisor Ahmet Davutoğlu met with Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish administration. Turkey has been launching cross-border raids on PKK targets in northern Iraq since last December. The United States is sharing intelligence with Turkey on the terrorist group.

“We don’t want our relations to be confined to the PKK issue only. We want extensive ties in all areas,” said Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday in Arbil. He said more contacts between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds were possible in the near future but did not elaborate. He also revealed that he had a meeting with Özçelik in London in July, discussing his planned meeting with Massoud Barzani.

Barzani to discuss PJAK in Iran

Massoud Barzani is expected to visit neighboring Iran this week and the presence of a PKK offshoot in northern Iraq will be on the agenda of his talks, which will focus on border security, Iranian news reports said yesterday. The Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), which has organic links with the PKK, uses northern Iraqi bases to attack Iran. Turkey and Iran coordinate cross-border attacks on PKK and PJAK targets. Four PJAK members were killed in clashes with the Iranian security forces over the past two weeks. Three Iranian soldiers also died in the clashes.