Turkey’s opposition: ‘PKK, PYD Kurds, not terrorists’

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – On Tuesday, the prominent Kurdish opposition party in Turkey Congress of Democratic Societies (KCD) stated that Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) are Kurds who fight for their natural rights, not terrorists.

Selma Irmak, the KCD co-chair, told Kurdistan24 in an exclusive interview, “When Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani told Al-Monitor that PYD and PKK are ‘exactly one and the same thing,’ many parties and agencies on social media tried to fish in troubled waters.”

“We do not have any problems with the Kurdistan Region. On the contrary, we have common goals and aspirations of achieving the rights of Kurdish people in all parts of Greater Kurdistan [in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran],” Irmak said.

Irmak stressed that PKK and PYD are Kurds who are peace seekers, not terrorists, no matter if they are the same or separate entities.

“PKK is engaging in combat because the Turkish government has proven to be against any peace initiatives,” she said.

Regarding the Turkish securities’ operation in southern Turkey’s Kurdish areas, Irmak announced that the Turkish government’s worries about the latest developments in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) have led to the violent operations against the Kurds since last June.

“Raising the matter of Kurdish Independence in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Syria’s Kurds’ declaration of federalism outraged the Turkish hierarchy,” she said.

On March 23, a Turkish journalist in the Daily Press Briefing at the US Department of State brought attention to Barzani’s comments about the PYD and PKK which led to unidentified parties and agencies on social media to accuse the President of talking against the groups.

However, Mark Toner, the Spokesperson at the US Department of State, replied to the journalists and said that PYD is not a terrorist organization and that the US administration considers the PKK and PYD as “two separate entities.”  

 
Reporting by Hisham Arafat

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany