Barzani office rebukes Turkish nationalist leader over Cizre visit remarks

ERBIL – The office of Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani on Tuesday rejected comments by Turkish Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahçeli about Barzani’s recent visit to Cizre, calling his language chauvinistic and harmful.

A spokesperson for Barzani’s headquarters said Bahçeli’s remarks were made “in a chauvinistic tone that contradicts established norms and serves no one’s interests.”

Bahçeli had criticized the warm reception Barzani received in Turkey and framed the visit as a breach of sovereignty. “The sovereignty rights and law of the Republic of Turkey have unfortunately been violated. Whether you call it protocol rules or customs, everything has been violated,” he said, also objecting to the presence of “foreign uniformed soldiers wandering around with long-barreled weapons on our homeland.”

Barzani’s office said all logistical and security arrangements for the trip, including the visit to the “Melaye Cizire” symposium, were carried out under an agreed protocol between institutions in the Kurdistan Region and Turkey.

“It is also standard practice that when high-ranking Turkish officials visit the Region, they are accompanied by their own special military units, something that has never posed any problem,” the statement said.

The Kurdish force accompanying Barzani during the visit was the Counter Terrorism Department, whose members wore uniforms bearing the Kurdistan flag.

Barzani’s headquarters also said the visit was meant to support a political opening, not provoke tensions. “President Barzani’s visit was a constructive step in support of the peace process that Mr. Bahçeli claims to endorse,” the statement said.

The spokesperson closed with a sharp rebuke, saying: “We had hoped he had turned the page on racism and chauvinism; however, his latest remarks suggest otherwise, the same old ‘Gray Wolf,’ now in sheep’s clothing.”

The term “Grey Wolves” refers to a far-right ultranationalist movement in Turkey often linked to the MHP and described by analysts as ultra-nationalist, neo-fascist and pan-Turkic, with a long record of hostility toward Kurdish political and cultural demands. Bahçeli’s political career was shaped within that tradition and long defined by opposition to any Kurdish opening.

In October 2024, however, Bahçeli shocked observers by calling for Abdullah Öcalan’s isolation to be eased so that the jailed PKK leader could address parliament and urge the PKK to lay down its arms and dissolve. His proposal helped pave the way for government-approved DEM Party visits to Öcalan on Imrali and for a new parliamentary commission to oversee the ongoing disarmament process.