As usual in diplomatic talks conducted behind closed doors, reports of what the two sides involved in such talks have said to each other are conflicting. This weekend Barzani-Davutoðlu talks are no different. Indeed the Turkish foreign minister emerged from the talks praising the growing cooperation between Turkish and Iraqi Kurds. Davutoðlu said that Turks and Kurds are “eternal brothers”. And the rhetoric was pouring."The brotherhood", went on the foreign minister - is in danger because of the presence of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) within the borders of northern Iraq. And here the rhetoric started to become reality. The reality is that Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani fell short of giving Turkey the assurances it required. Indeed Davutoðlu had to say that Turkey now expects the Kurdish administration to take a clear stance against terrorism and actively cooperate with Turkey in its counterterrorism efforts. Turkey expects. That's it. Turkey can expect the Kurdish Regional Government to do what Turkey likes, but it is nowhere certain that the Kurds of Iraq will actually do that.

In the joint news conference at the end of the meeting old leader Barzani simply said that "“Our security is interlinked. We will take every measure to further strengthen our security”. Words which amount to nothing more than a ready-made sentence. Rhetoric again. But in Barzani's case not just rhetoric. It is also the reiteration of a stance which might be not at all clear, but indicates that indeed the Kurdish Regional Government will have serious problems in selling away to its people the "iron pact" Turkey wants on crashing the PKK.

So the talks end once again as they have ended in the past. A lot of "solidarity" promises and "security-is-our-countries-priority" talks but that's pretty much it. Words. Till the next visit.