‘Peace messengers’ delegation crosses Kurdistan to Turkey

DUHUK / IraqiNews.com: The ‘peace messengers’ delegation crossed Iraq’s Kurdistan region into Turkish territories on Monday, according to the official of the security center at the Ibrahim al-Khalil compound said. “A total of 28 persons representing the ‘peace messengers’ delegation entered the Turkish territories and returned to their house,” Abdulwahab Mohammad told IraqiNews.com news agency. A source from a pro-PKK party had said that the delegation will head for Turkey to convey a message to the government in Ankara to express their support to its initiative toward Kurds. A Turkish government advisor, Ibrahim Kalin, said it is an important step. The government has been working on a Kurdish initiative that is expected to give greater freedoms to Turkey’s large Kurdish minority, including language rights by which Kurdish may be taught in public universities.The reform process is seen as vital to boosting Turkey’s European Union membership application and ending a 25-year conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) , which has killed more than 40,000 people. It is unlikely to be a success without political consensus. Turkey’s estimated 12 million Kurds, of a population of 72 million, have long complained of discrimination by the state.Turkey has been fighting the PKK since 1984 when it took up arms to carve out a homeland in southeastern Turkey. SH (S)/SR 286