KRG spokesperson says PKK threats fall under ‘terror’ framework

The spokesperson of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Safeen Dizayee on Wednesday condemned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)'s threats against the Kurdistan Region.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The spokesperson of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Safeen Dizayee on Wednesday condemned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)'s threats against the Kurdistan Region.

This came in response to the comments made by Raza Altun, the executive member of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), the PKK umbrella which hosts regional affiliated groups and parties.

Altun said they would no longer respect the boundaries of the Kurdistan Region and turn the region into a battlefield against Turkey and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the leading party in the KRG.

Altun’s speech came after Turkish airstrikes hit the bases of PKK-affiliated groups in Sinjar (Shingal) on April 25, 2017.

“It is a clear threat, and it falls under the framework of terror,” Dizayee told Kurdistan24. “If they continue making such statements, certainly there will be a response and the Kurdistan Region won’t remain silent.”

The spokesperson emphasized that the battlefield of the PKK is in Turkey, not in the Kurdistan Region.

“Interference in the Kurdistan Region or any parts of Kurdistan is unacceptable,” Dizayee said.

The KRG and Ezidi leaders have repeatedly requested the PKK and its affiliated groups in Sinjar (Shingal) areas located in west Kurdistan Region to withdraw, but the group has far refused.

Moreover, in an interview with Kurdistan24, the Head of EU Office in Erbil Clarisse Pásztory stated that as an EU representative she does not accept the PKK’s threats.

“We do not expect anyone threatening any other country or any other nation,” Pásztory continued.

“The PKK is an organization listed in the European Union. We certainly cannot accept such threats, and I hope it was a misunderstanding or somebody who spoke without knowing what they were saying,” she concluded.

Turkey, the EU and the US have listed the PKK as a terrorist organization.

The spokesperson of Peshmerga Ministry Halgurd Hikmat has previously told Kurdistan24, “We hope it is just a statement, nothing more because the Kurdistan Region has many cards in hand to use against them [PKK] if it wants to.”

The tension between the PKK and the Kurdistan Region has been escalating following the clashes which erupted between Peshmerga and PKK-affiliated armed wing in Shingal. Both sides had casualties.

 

Editing by Ava Homa