HDP slams Erdogan over suggesting Kurdish state an insult to Kurds

ANKARA, Turkey (Kurdistan 24) - Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Friday criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his earlier remarks this week denying Kurdish people the right to self-determination.

During a press conference at the Turkish Parliament, HDP's spokesperson and lawmaker Osman Baydemir touched on Erdogan's words that a "Kurdish state was an insult to the Kurds."

"Then why do you consider [your own] state as sacred? Why a right that you enjoy must not belong to the Kurds who you call 'my brothers,'" asked Baydemir, reported Kurdistan 24's Ankara Bureau.

"They keep saying 'Kurdish state.' I consider this as an insult to my Kurdish brothers. My Kurdish brothers, I believe, will never allow such a formation in Syria's north, or Turkey's south," Erdogan had said Wednesday.

In his speech, Erdogan fell short of mentioning Kurdistan Region's next month referendum on independence from Iraq, to which he has previously expressed objection.

Baydemir tied Erdogan's statement to that of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli who on Thursday suggested Turkey should go to war with Kurdistan Region if it went ahead with the September 25 referendum.

"No one should have the audacity to threaten the 40 million Kurdish people [in the Middle East]. Southern Kurdistan's right to self-determination is its most legitimate right," Baydemir said, referring to the autonomous region by its place in the Greater Kurdistan.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Friday ruled out any possibility of going to war with the Kurdistan Region, stating as a part of Iraq it did not constitute a threat to his country's sovereignty.

Baydemir also denounced Turkish policy vis a vis the US-backed Kurds in Syria who have declared an unrecognized autonomy in the civil war-torn country's north.

"The same applies to Western Kurdistan [Rojava]," calling for respect to Syrian Kurds' quest for self-rule.

Founded as an ethnocentric unitary state on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire a century ago, Turkey fears recent military and political gains by Kurds in Iraq and Syria could open the door to the creation of a Greater Kurdistan in the Middle East.

Editing by Ava Homa