Independent Diyarbakır deputy Leyla Zana paid a visit to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani on Tuesday Today`s Zaman reported.
Zana visited Barzani in his office in Salahaddin city. She said Barzani is an important leader of Kurds and that he should play a critical role in any solution to the festering Kurdish issue.
Speaking after the meeting, Barzani said the solution is only possible through negotiations and dialogue. He argued that political actors have the responsibility to solve the problem.
Pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies and other prominent Turkish-Kurdish figures pay regular visits to the regional government in northern Iraq to exchange views over Turkey's decades-old Kurdish problem.
Barzani has harshly criticized the brutal methods of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and says violence is not a viable tool for achieving political goals in today's world. He underlines that political dialogue and civilian initiatives are more valuable and that the Kurdish issue can be solved through democratic institutions rather than the maintenance of an armed struggle.