ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Saturday met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2025, with discussions around bilateral relations, security cooperation, and the peace process in Turkey.

Barzani arrived in Turkey on Friday afternoon to take part in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, during which he held meetings with several top officials from regional countries. His meeting with the Turkish defense minister comes a day after he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday.

“During the meeting, Turkey’s relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, and cooperation to protect the security and stability of the region were discussed, they also exchanged views on the situation in Iraq and overall regional developments,” read a statement from the presidency.

Both sides underlined the peace process in Turkey as an “important and historic step,” and stressed the importance of the efforts toward realizing the process, the statement added.

The discussions around the peace process followed in the same vein as Barzani’s Friday meeting with Erdogan, during which they discussed the Imrali delegation’s recent audience with the Turkish president, with Barzani emphasizing the Kurdistan Region’s willingness to offer help of any kind to ensure the success of the process.

Erdogan on Thursday received Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) MPs Pervin Buldan and Sirri Surreyya Onder, who were also a part of the Imrali delegation that visited jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in January. The meeting, which was described as “positive” later on by Onder, marks a crucial step in the process of securing peace between the PKK and the Turkish state.

In late February, following dialogue with the Imrali delegation, Ocalan issued a call for a ceasefire by the PKK, a move that was readily endorsed by the Turkish president. 

“The peace process is an opportunity that everyone has to take seriously and this opportunity should not be lost in any way,” a statement by the Kurdistan Region’s presidency after the meeting with Erdogan quoted Barzani as saying.

The Kurdish president also met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, on the sidelines of the annual forum, which is set to last through Sunday.