Erdogan-Barzani 'Diyarbakir encounter' milestone
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the first time ever, says "Kurdistan."
Last weekend Turkey lived through many "firsts" at Diyarbakir, which is seen by all Kurds — not only the ones in Turkey — as their "spiritual center."
The weekend meeting, labeled as the "Diyarbakir encounter," bringing together Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, was choreographed by Erdogan. It was, above all, a phenomenal public relations achievement for the prime minister.
The Diyarbakir encounter can also be considered a significant political comeback for Erdogan, whose image inside the country and abroad has suffered considerably after the Taksim-Gezi protests at the beginning of the summer.
The event was planned so that Barzani would travel by road from Erbil to meet Erdogan in Diyarbakir, where they would attend several functions, including the laying of foundation stones for many projects and attending the mass marriage ceremony of 300 couples. But that wasn’t the whole drama. Legendary Kurdish singer Shivan Perwer, who left Turkey — where his cassettes were banned — 37 years ago, was to return to his country with Barzani. By performing duets with Turkey’s world-renowned singer Ibrahim Tatlises, he was to take part in the traditional Kurdish marriage as well as the “political marriage rites” of the Turkish prime minister and president of Iraqi Kurdistan.
