Kurdish politicians meet Iraq president Jalal Talabani

Some of the most prominent figures in Kurdish politics, who have been in the northern autonomous Kurdish region for a visit, met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani yesterday purportedly to enlist his help in convincing the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to initiate a cease-fire amidst ongoing military operations by the Turkish military against PKK bases in northern Iraq. Kurdish politicians such as Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk, who currently jointly head the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), a civil society platform that is an unofficial continuation of the now defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP), the predecessor of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), and the BDP's Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak met in İstanbul last week with Massoud Barzani, head of Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, where the PKK has made a home to launch attacks into Turkey. The delegation was in northern Iraq, according to a report in Taraf on Wednesday, and was scheduled to move on to Sulaimaniya to meet Talabani. Taraf reported that they will try to convince Iraqi leaders to get involved and convince Turkey to stop its cross-border operations against PKK bases in northern Iraq. Meanwhile, a group representing 715 southeastern civil society organizations is scheduled to meet with President Abdullah Gül shortly after the end of the Eid al-Adha holiday. They will also visit members of the government and the political parties represented in Parliament for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem.