The KCK Foreign Relations Committee issued a statement about the visit by three Turkish ministers to Iraq.

The statement said: "Three ministers of the occupying Turkish state will visit Baghdad to negotiate with officials of the Iraqi government. Based on statements made by Turkish officials, notably the fascist leader Erdoğan, who was responsible for the deaths of numerous Iraqi people only last month, it is apparent what the agenda of this meeting is, and what the subsequent steps will be.

The genocide against the Kurdish people serves as the foundation for both the Turkish regime’s internal and foreign policy; it disproves the existence of the Kurdish people within or outside its borders and engages in cultural genocide against them accordingly, breaking and disobeying the most fundamental moral and humanitarian laws on a national and worldwide scale. Additionally, it implements a policy of aggravated isolation against Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdish people."

The statement continued: "The Turkish regime designs and implements its foreign policy to advance its domestic agenda of genocide. Wherever they conduct meetings and with whoever they do so, the aim of the fascist leader Erdoğan and his state officials is to attract international support for the genocidal warfare they are waging against the Kurds. Erdoğan’s primary goal at every UN gathering, NATO summit, Davos, Munich, Astana, and Sochi meeting is to gain support for this policy of genocide against the Kurdish people. Across the Middle East, Erdoğan and his regime attempt to seek the support of other nations and states in these heinous acts. To persuade Iraq to cooperate with their murderous initiatives, the Turkish state has been pressuring and manipulating the country in a variety of ways, particularly over recent months."

The statement added: "The Iraqi state has made significant progress toward resolving the Kurdish issue and has recognized the identity and rights of the Kurds in accordance with its constitution. The policies of previous administrations, which had been genocidal and denialist, have been abandoned by the current administration, in favor of democratic progress. The Iraqi state will emerge as an inspiration in the Middle East and earn the support of democratic circles and all Kurds if it takes further courageous steps towards democratization. Seeing this, the Turkish state is determined to divert Iraq from its political course, converting the country into a partner of its own policies of genocide and annihilation, digressing it to the customs of more than a century ago.

Above all, it is necessary to recognize that the biggest security threat to Iraq is the fascist regime of Turkey. Erdoğan, the leader of the fascist movement, has never denied his intentions to invade and occupy a certain part of Iraq, openly claiming ownership over Kirkuk and Mosul. It is Erdoğan who continually puts forward neo-Ottoman declarations and propagandizes about the Misak-ı Milli. The PKK and the Kurdish Freedom Movement, being portrayed as the threat against which Erdoğan will provide aid to the Iraqi government, have fought to defend the Iraqi people against ISIS’s inhumane attacks. Thus, if a true security summit is to be held, it must be held against the Turkish state that is currently occupying the region, rather than the PKK. Because it is the Turkish state which has invaded and occupied Iraqi territory, constructed hundreds of temporary as well as permanent bases there, deploying tens of thousands of soldiers, and using fighter planes and drones to target a different part of Iraqi territory every day, from Shengal [Sinjar] to Kelar, Duhok, and Zakho. Thus far, these attacks have resulted in the martyrdom of 165 Iraqi citizens alongside hundreds of injuries. Still, these figures continue to rise. For hundreds of years, the people of the Middle East and Iraq have depended on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, sustaining their livelihoods from these waters. Turkey has cut off this water supply, utilizing it as a weapon of ecological and economic warfare against Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations."

The KCK continued: "The meeting between Iraqi officials and Turkey’s senior military and intelligence personnel, including terrorists such as Hakan Fidan, is undeniably detrimental to the interests of the Iraqi people and government. How are agreements between the officials of an occupying power and those of the occupied state possible? This cannot be explained in the face of history and the people. While Hakan Fidan’s hand is being shaken, the other is drenched in the blood of Iraqi citizens. It is vital to understand that Erdoğan and the fascism of the AKP-MHP today represent what Saddam and the Baath dictatorship represented to the peoples of Iraq and the Middle East in the past.

In terms of security, Turkey has nothing to offer Iraq. It offers occupation, horror, plunder, massacre, and sorrow, if anything. The Turkish government would not have trained and armed ISIS gangs within Turkish borders and deployed them to Mosul, Kirkuk, and Anbar if it was concerned about the security of Iraq. Had the Turkish government been worried about Iraq’s security, it would have joined the war against terrorism by conducting drones and airstrikes against ISIS rather than the Kurds.

Once again, the occupying Turkish state is the one arming and training extremist organizations — utilizing ISIS as a threat against Iraq. The first and only nation to try to establish an embassy in the territory seized by ISIS, is Turkey. Meanwhile, the PKK and the Kurdish Freedom Movement fought ISIS on behalf of the peoples of Iraq and the Middle East, sacrificing their own lives in the process.

Our call to the Iraqi government is to stop the occupying Turkish state from hiding its war crimes behind the Iraqi flag, which protects the rights and existence of Kurds in accordance with its constitution. Turkey is committing genocide against the Kurdish people while disguising this act as a measure for border security.

We call on all political circles, patriots, writers and intellectuals, community leaders, and non-governmental organizations in South Kurdistan and Iraq: Speak out against the invasion and occupation threats made by the Turkish state, against the terror and violence that are raging in Iraq’s cities and skies, and do not allow the future to be sacrificed over the narrow interests of a small group."