Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani made a sudden visit to Ankara four days before the critical parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region.  

Barzani arrived in Ankara and is expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The visit also coincides with the expansion of the Turkish state's occupation attacks in Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq). According to the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) leader Bafil Talabani’s remarks at an election rally in Duhok, more than 400 villages in the Behdinan region alone have been evacuated ‘due to the betrayal of the KDP’ and ‘the occupation of the Turkish state’.