The president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani, has renewed calls for Turkey to release Selahattin Demirtas, the co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and other lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish bloc who are being held on a mind-numbing array of thinly supported terror charges.
Barzani made the appeal during an hour-long meeting Feb. 25 with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, reported the Iraqi Kurdish Rudaw media organization. Barzani described his talks with Erdogan at the sumptuous Ottoman-era Mabeyn kiosk as “very good.” He said, “We discussed all subjects,” but chose not to elaborate.