With Talabani about the PKK’s disarmament...

Talabani met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday night upon his arrival to Istanbul. The two leaders were together last year in Baghdad as they signed the "strategic cooperation" protocol between Turkey and Iraq. We had returned to Turkey with Erdoğan following a dinner for the Turkish Prime Minister hosted by Talabani.

Let me remind here that Talabani had visited Ankara as the president of Iraq early last year and following this trip the ice has started to thaw between Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds.

Nowadays, top-level bilateral talks involving Talabani seem ordinary. His arrival to Turkey and meetings are so common that almost none is news anymore. The Iraqi president stresses this in his room at Istanbul Swiss Hotel, remembering the days when he secretly visited Ankara with the permission of the late President Turgut Özal.

One of his basic characteristics is loyalty to old friends. The Kurdish president of Iraq has proven this on every visit to Turkey. Talabani has never neglected people who met him in difficult days, on the days he was treated like a "suspect" and people who helped him to make a progress in bilateral relations with Turkey. As it was before, this time again he wanted to meet me, Hasan Cemal, M. Ali Birand and İlnur Çevik. So we met over a lunch.

We talked about everything; the most important one being the disarmament of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

President Gül’s one-week-old remarks that "good things will happen in the upcoming term regarding the Kurdish issue" were understandable enough and caused excitement. After meeting with Erdoğan and Gül, Talabani must have had something to say on the subject.

So he stressed two points in particular:

1. The period is no longer a period of sovereignty struggle. Armed struggle is replaced by methods of politics, diplomacy, mass movements etc., and especially mass communication tools. We are living in a communication age, not living in Mao, Che Guevera and Ho Chi Minh periods. Therefore, there is no ground for the PKK to continue with armed struggle. A big part of the PKK members have begun to see this. Such an understanding gives rise to a new medium for the PKK’s disarmament.

2. In parallel, Kurdish parties of Iran, Syria, Europe and Turkey will probably have a conference in Arbil in late April. or early May and call for the PKK to lay down arms. This meeting is the brainchild of Massoud Barzani and the conference will be held under his initiative and with a "green light" from Turkey.

Talabani says Kurds in Turkey should be patient; the issue will gradually be resolved over time, through "evolutionary" developments and they will provide assistance.

The steps taken in Turkey in the near past are very positive, adds Talabani, giving importance to such steps. The Iraqi president especially refers to the TRT-6 Kurdish broadcasts. "Even a single sentence uttered in Kurdish by a Turkish prime minister was unthinkable in the near past," he says. With the TRT-6, the policy of denying Kurdish existence has come to an end and the point we have arrived today cannot be underestimated, he continues.

One of the clearest evidence of the "rapprochement" between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds is a possible visit by Barzani following the March 29 local elections in Turkey. Talabani is aware of the preparations in this direction and confirms that "Mr. Barzani will soon visit Turkey".

Do Americans or Turkey have a "solution plan for the Kurdish issue" where they also can play a role?

While talking with Talabani you realize that there is no document or study that can be referred as a "plan," but only several guiding principles.

He is optimistic about the approach of the new U.S. administration to the Kurdish issue and to the rapprochement between Turkey and the Iraqi Turks. He knows U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Chief Adviser Gen. James Jones and Ms. Clinton, so he says. Talabani adds that Gen. Jones believes there is no military solution to the Kurdish issue and that the general shared his views with the officials of the Turkish General Staff as he was the chief NATO commander.

I, as a person who has known him for 36 years, can witness the "eternal optimism" as his most unique characteristic. The Iraqi president gives a profile most fitting to his optimism regarding the future of the country. He says people in Baghdad are in the streets and at restaurants until midnight and invites us all to Baghdad.

Talabani said that he met U.S. President Barrack Obama twice in Baghdad before Obama was elected. Over a recent phone call, Obama asked Talabani "If you prepare a dinner table for me as you did last time, I will visit Baghdad and be your guest." Talabani responded "We will prepare a better table." The Iraqi president expresses hope to see Obama in Baghdad in the near future again, following a trip to Turkey for instance.

Let’s go back to the issue of the PKK’s disarmament. The most important development about the solution of the Kurdish issue in Turkey is without doubt will be a step to be taken in this direction. Hasan Cemal asks Talabani "What is the likelihood of this?"

Talabani pausing for a second says "60 percent."

Considering Talabani’s optimism, this is a quite low percentage.

Given that it is not a "fifty-fifty" situation, or even better, if you think that this is higher than 51-49 percent, let’s keep hope aliveÉ