Nobody has the right to deny the Kurds independence: Leader of Kosovo party

“Nobody has the right to deny the Kurdish people their will of being free and living in freedom and peace in solidarity with the other peoples in the world.”

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The international community should not try to deny the Kurdish people’s right to live in freedom and peace, an Albanian activist and politician asserted on Sunday.

Visar Ymeri, the leader of the Self-Determination movement in Kosovo, while speaking with Kurdistan 24 during a visit to the US, said that nobody has the right to deny the Kurdish people their dream of an independent state.

“The Kurdish people have suffered for a long time. They are the biggest nation without a state yet,” Ymeri noted, a point which has been stressed by proponents of Kurdish independence.

“Nobody has the right to deny the Kurdish people their will of being free and living in freedom and peace in solidarity with the other peoples of the world.”

Senior officials in the Kurdistan Region have agreed to hold an independence referendum on Sep. 25, 2017, despite issues raised by neighboring countries and the US regarding the timing of the vote.

The European politician, however, is unconvinced by the concerns of opponents of the referendum.

“The international community should adhere to the principles to the principles that can maintain sustainable peace in the world: equality, justice, freedom and the possibility for people to freely determine their destiny,” Ymeri countered.

The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently spoke to the President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani over the phone asking him to postpone the referendum. However, President Barzani remained firm regarding the Kurds’ decision to hold the vote.

Kurds are believed to be the largest stateless nation in the world, estimated to be over 40 million, mostly settled in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.