HDP says Turkey army mandate war on all Kurds

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – As the Turkish Parliament began an extraordinary session on Saturday to extend a mandate allowing the army to conduct cross-border operations in Iraq and Syria, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) slammed the government for "openly declaring war" on 40-million Kurdish people.

Addressing the session televised by the state TV, the HDP spokesperson Osman Baydemir asked why the right to self-determination entitled to the Tuks would be illegal for the Kurds.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government moved the bill initially set to be voted in November to an earlier date, just two days ahead of Kurdistan Region's referendum on independence from Iraq.

"When was there stability in the Middle East that now you warn of instability because South Kurdistan is holding a referendum," Baydemir questioned Ankara authorities.

A national security council meeting on Friday labeled the vote as "illegitimate and unacceptable," while threatening unspecified military and economic measures if not canceled for good.

"Your anti-Kurdish policies are a threat to Turkey's national security not Kurdish aspirations," Baydemir told the Parliament convened to vote the motion.

"Whatever decision the people of South Kurdistan with its Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians, the Turkmen, and Kurds, give through the ballot box has to be respected," the HDP lawmaker said, explaining that the reason Kurdish authorities were taking the step was Iraqi government's violation of their constitutional rights.

Baydemir also called on the government to return to its previous efforts in trying to solve the war with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) through peaceful means. The group has been fighting for larger Kurdish rights.

He blamed the AKP for bringing down the peace table for electoral interests in 2015 and a desire to disrupt a fledgling Kurdish-led autonomy in northern Syria.

Presence of PKK camps in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region and the US-backed People's Protection Units' (YPG) territorial gains in Syria against the Islamic State (IS) are Ankara's two primary arguments for military incursions beyond the border.

Baydemir also criticized Ankara's changing stance toward Kurdistan Region, reminding of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's previous remarks in which he had said they would be conducting diplomatic and commercial agreements directly with Erbil and not through Baghdad.

"We, as the HDP, do not view the solution to problems in the South Kurdistan, Rojava [Syrian Kurdistan], Kurdistan of Turkey and Rojhilat [Iranian Kurdistan] in the use of violence," he added, reiterating his party's support for the right to self-determination.

He said current policies were not only alienating HDP voters but also Kurds who voted for AKP and other Turkish parties.

Baydemir's accusations that government was collaborating with Islamist groups in Iraq and Syria created verbal tensions with AKP lawmakers.

"You are crying for Palestine and Rohingya, but when it comes to the Kurds, you are not allowing the burial of an 80-year-old woman in Ankara," he said, referring to an attack two weeks ago on a funeral procession for the deceased mother of the imprisoned Kurdish politician Aysel Tugluk.

In response, AKP's Bostanci said they were fighting "terror" and not the Kurdish people while charging Baydemir with ties to the PKK.

Speaker Ismail Kahraman intervened, telling Baydemir that he could not speak in the assembly "in a way suggesting the division of this country."

"I will have to require you to apologize," Ismail Kahraman urged Baydemir.

Baydemir in response said he was using his right to speech, adding the Speakership was free to oust him from the session or even strip him of membership in the Parliament.

"Bijî azadî, bijî wekhevî, bijî îradeya gelê Kurd," he said in Kurdish that meant "long live freedom, long live equality, long live will of the Kurdish people."

Editing by Ava Homa