ABSTRACT
The Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi leadership believed that through Massoud Barzani, who is politically and economically dependent on Turkey in Iraqi Kurdistan, they could influence the Kurdish ethno-nationalist discourse at home. Many opinion makers and scholars cum retired politicians in the US policy world bemoaned the deterioration of relations with as crucial an ally as Turkey and behind the scenes prepared the ground for reconciliation and a reinvigorated partnership that would also include the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The KRG initiated policies that restricted the freedom of movement of Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK) political representatives in Iraqi Kurdistan and made it more difficult for journalists to reach the PKK camps in the Qandil mountains. Turkey defined its relations with the KRG until 2008 primarily through a security lens; that is, what determined relations between Erbil and Ankara was almost exclusively the presence of the PKK on Iraqi Kurdish territory and how to deal with it.
