The visit to Istanbul  last week Thursday and Friday of Salih Muslim, the co-chairman of the Democratic Union Party, PYD, identified as the Syrian twin of Turkey’s notorious armed Kurdish organization, the PKK, came as a surprise. If you listen to what Salih Muslim said the results of the visit were equally surprising. From his remarks, we understand that Turkey is on the verge of radical and crucial changes in its approach to Syrian Kurds and especially to the PYD itself.

To fully grasp this "U-turn” towards the Syrian Kurds, which will definitely reflect on the Kurdish issue in Turkey and on Turkey’s overall Syria policy, you have to remember that Salih Muslim was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the instructions of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. 

Such contacts until know were conducted secretly on the initiative of the National Intelligence Organization, MIT. This time it was on the initiative of the Foreign Ministry and in the open. So much so that Salih Muslim did not only give statements to the Dicle News Agency, close to the PKK, but also to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency of Turkey. Furthermore, he spoke to T24 News site which is fast becoming the most trusted digital news source. He also had an interview published in the daily Radikal two days after his departure from Istanbul.

When you add the comments of many columnists who referred to Salih Muslim’s visit, you realize that the Turkish media had never been so generous to Syrian Kurds and to the PKK’s twin, the PYD.