Turkey-Kurdish relations thawing

Turkey is making discreet efforts to reach out to Iraqi Kurdish leaders. Last month the head of Milli Istihbarat Teskilati national intelligence organization, or MIT, Undersecretary Emre Taner, secretly visited Kurdistan Democratic Party president Massoud Barzani in Erbil before Barzani's visit to Washington.

The New Anatolian reported that the meeting took place at Barzani's Seriraj headquarters in Salahaddin. No specifics were released about the discussions between Taner and the Barzani administration.

Two Kurdish officials, one who attended the meeting and the other who was privy to the visit, confirmed it had happened.

The MIT has an office in Salahaddin, where the two officials maintain close contacts with the Barzani administration.

Regarding the warming relations, the Turkish Prime Minister's foreign policy advisor Ahmet Davutoglu said, "We made an arrangement when [Kurdish leader] Jalal Talabani was elected president. We said we were glad about the elections."

Iraqi President and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Jalal Talabani has closer ties with Turkey than Barzani, and recently said he expects Barzani's party to move towards establishing better relations with Ankara.

The United States and Britain have reportedly told Barzani to tone down his Kurdish nationalist rhetoric on Kirkuk so as not to offend Turkey, while Ankara is beginning to accept that the Kurdish leaders are a reality of Iraqi politics, and that the Kurdistan region of Iraq has evolved into a legitimate entity according to international law.