Barzani meets with leader of Huda Par, offshoot of murderous Hezbollah group

Masoud Barzani, the leader of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraqi Kurdistan, met on Wednesday with the leader of Turkey's Kurdish Islamist Huda Par (the Free Cause Party), the offshoot of the armed Hezbollah group (not related to the Leabnese Shi'a oganization by the same name) that is responsible for murdering hundreds of civilians.

While no information on the meeting's content has yet been provided by KDP, Huda Par briefly said:

"Our chairman Mr. Zekeriya Yapicioglu and KDP chairman Mr. Masoud Barzani met at the Erbil offices of Mr. Barzani. The chairmen exchanged views on subjects in the agenda."

Huda Par is part of the alliance led by Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and Huda Par's parliamentary candidates will run under AKP at the coming elections on 14 May.

The party has its roots in the Hezbollah group whose militants murdered hundreds of people including Kurdish dissidents, rights defenders and journalists throughout the 1990s and assassinated a police chief and several police officers in 2001. The Hezbollah group assisted Turkish state forces in their illegal operations - namely, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances - to root out and crush the Kurdish democratic opposition.

While AKP is subjected to accusations by the opposition over its alliance with Huda Par, Barzani's meeting with Huda Par leader signifies efforts to provide some legitimacy for the latter.