HDP criticizes Turkish parties for uniting against Kurds

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Tuesday lambasted Turkish ruling and opposition parties for being “one voice” against Kurdish demands for self-rule or independence in Iraq and Syria.

“When it comes to Kurdish independence, there is a united front in Turkey. All the parties [side] with the government and show the same attitude,” HDP’s spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen said.

Bilgen was criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), its far-right ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) who, along with the HDP, have parliamentary representation.

“There is no difference between the conduct of these three parties. Their attitude is the entirety of Ankara’s approach to the Kurds,” he told his party’s lawmakers during a group meeting at the Parliament.

Erdogan and his opponents robustly opposed the Kurdistan Region’s Sep. 25 independence referendum and a fledgling Kurdish-led autonomy in Syria where a civil war and the fight against the Islamic State (IS) continue.

Nearly 93 percent of the voters wanted statehood for Kurdistan.

“The starkest expression of this [policy] is toward the people of the Kurdistan Region who want independence,” Bilgen continued.

The Turkish leadership has supported the Iraq takeover of Kirkuk a fortnight ago and threatened economic sanctions as well as military cooperation with Baghdad.

Bilgen, who authorities kept in jail for over eight months until early September, said Turkish foreign policy toward the Kurds in the Middle East was not serving domestic peace.

“If you do not want for the Kurds in Iraq and Syria what you demand for the Turkish Cypriots or Crimean Turks [Tatars], then such double standards will not allow a democratic coexistence [in Turkey],” Bilgen said.

He also stated that according to UN statistics, 175,000 people fled from the Kurdish-majority city of Kirkuk which Iraqi forces backed by Iranian-supported Shia militias captured from retreating Peshmerga forces.

“You cannot utter the word peace if you are happy with the displacement of 175,000 people,” he said of the Turkish alignment with governments in Baghdad and Tehran.

“The responsibility of compensating for the injustice Kurds have faced in the last 100 years of the Middle East lies with the Turks, Arabs, and Persians,” Bilgen concluded.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany