Iraq's Kurds Support Turkey's 'Solution Process': Spokesman

The Kurdish regional government reacted positively to the latest official announcement by Turkish officials about the "solution process," a spokesman said Friday.



The "solution process" officially began in 2013 in an effort to bring an end to the decades-old conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is listed by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union as a terrorist organization.



The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party had announced PKK's jailed-leader Abdullah Ocalan's message where he invited PKK to hold a congress to make a historic decision to find common ground on the issue of laying down arms.



"We support the ongoing peace process," Kurdish regional government spokesman Sefin Dizayi said. "Peace and dialogue is the best solution. That is why we have evaluated the latest release positively."



Training of peshmerga



Dizayi said that Turkey has been training peshmerga fighters in their fight against Daesh. 



"Turkey's armed forces have been training the peshmerga to use weapons since September," he said. "These trainings continue in the Sulaymaniyah and Soran regions."



Additionally, Turkey's defense minister said that Turkey is ready to train the Iraqi army.



Iraq has plunged into a security vacuum since June 2014, when Daesh stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it called a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.



The massacres committed by Daesh and the massive displacement of the local population led to the creation of an international coalition against the terror group. 



The U.S.-led coalition has staged airstrikes against Daesh targets in Iraq and Syria since September 2014.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ankara