 During the Syrian Civil War, the Kurds in Syria have established control over their own region with the help of the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party as well as with support from the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, under President Masoud Barzani.In late 2012, the Turkish government began secret talks with Öcalan for a ceasefire.To facilitate talks, government officials transmitted letters between Öcalan in jail to PKK leaders in northern Iraq.