HDP slams Turkey army mandate in Iraq, Syria as anti-Kurd

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey's Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) on Friday voiced its opposition to a proposed extension of a military mandate that would allow the army to conduct cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq days ahead of Kurdistan Region's referendum on independence.

HDP's Co-leader Serpil Kemalbay said Ankara government had to respect the choice of Kurdish people in both countries where the political and territorial gains they have made in recent years culminate in two historic votes before September ends.

"In Syria, Kurds are going to the ballot box to rule themselves. There must be respect for the right of the people of Rojava to determine its future," she said referring to Thursday's elections to pick local officials in Syrian Kurdistan.

"Also in Iraq, [Kurdistan Region's] referendum is a demand for self-determination. We are obliged to respect it," Kemalbay said in the major Kurdish city of Diyarbakir where she was to lead a meeting on women rights prevented by the Turkish police.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) announced on Thursday that the Parliament was to convene in an extraordinary session on Saturday to extend the mandate, a week before its official opening.

Turkey's intentions to disrupt Kurdish aspirations in Iraq and Syria come amid now almost a week-long army drill near a commercial border crossing with the former and further deployment ground forces on the frontier with the latter.

Hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, and thousands of troops are taking part in the exercises the Turks launched just a few miles away from the Kurdistan Region in an apparent response to Kurdish authorities’ determination to proceed with holding the referendum.

Westward, in the Kilis and Hatay provinces bordering Syria, Turkey continued to beef up army reinforcements in preparation of what the pro-government media suggest as a threatened incursion into the Kurdish district of Afrin across the border.

"We have to oppose the war. Approving the mandate means participating in the wars ravaging the region," Kemalbay said, in remarks addressing the main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) which has, along with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), backed government's earlier military actions.

Earlier the day, HDP's spokesperson Osman Baydemir slammed the Turkish government and opposition for uniting against the Kurds.

"Scotland went to the ballot box [in 2014]. Did a war break out? Catalonia, too, is holding a referendum. Are you going to send the army there? Why should it harm anyone now that the people of South Kurdistan are going to vote," Baydemir asked during a press conference in the Parliament.

Editing by Ava Homa

(Kurdistan 24's bureaus in Ankara and Diyarbakir contributed to this report.)