The KCK Foreign Relations Committee on the recent attacks of the Turkish state on Iraqi and southern Kurdistan soil, which cost the lives of several civilians. The statement entitled 'The Agreement with Turkey must be Renounced and the Attacks on Civilians must be Stopped' reads as follows:

“Our people in the Makhmur Camp, Şehît Rustem Cudi, who rejected the policies of denial, extermination, assimilation, and genocide of the occupying Turkish state and the collaborative and treasonous impositions of the KDP and who insisted on a free life despite all the difficulties and who therefore even became refugees in their own country, have been the target of the Turkish state’s UCAV terrorist attacks in recent days. These attacks took place in front of the eyes of the Iraqi state forces, who surround the camp and monitor it 24 hours a day under the pretext of “protection”.

Despite all the difficulties and impossibilities over the years, these people resisted the mercenaries of ISIS who wanted to invade Iraq and southern Kurdistan, with the support of the Turkish state, on the basis of self-defense, and with their noble resistance, they played a leading role in protecting the peoples of Iraq and southern Kurdistan. This epic resistance of the people of Makhmur, which among others prevented Hewler (Erbil) from falling into the hands of ISIS, forced even the KDP and Masoud Barzani, the very ones who are hostile to the camp in Makhmur and responsible for the embargo of the camp, to show their gratitude.

The occupying Turkish state did not lift a finger while ISIS terrorized Iraq and the Middle East. But now it itself is attacking the forces and centers of resistance that played a leading role in the defeat of ISIS, particularly in Shengal (Sinjar) and Makhmur. To put it correctly, the Turkish state continues its attacks as if it is taking revenge for ISIS from those who defeated it. In these attacks, it has brought former ISIS mercenaries to southern Kurdistan disguised as parts of its own occupying army. Using the presence of the Kurdistan freedom guerrilla, which supported the resistance of the people of Makhmur and stopped ISIS at the gate to Hewler, as pretext, the Turkish state conducts its attacks on the camp. When the Iraqi state made its commitment to protect the camp against any attack in its talks with the people of Makhmur, the small number of guerrilla forces left, withdrew, and went to the Medya Defense Zones.. All these negotiations and developments took place at the request, under the supervision and with the knowledge of the United Nations and its mission in Iraq, UNAMI. The Iraqi state and the UN are legally and morally responsible for ensuring the security of the camp and protecting it against any kind of attack.

However, after the recently signed agreement between the occupying Turkish state and the Iraqi government, the attacks on the camp resumed. Our people of Makhmur, who did not accept the modern slavery imposed on them and built their own free life with their own efforts and labor, were again targets of the terrorist attacks of the genocidal Erdogan-Bahceli system. These attacks followed the attacks on Sayed Sadiq, Dukan, Biradost, and Mawet, which led to the martyrdom of seven civilian citizens. The Iraqi state and the UN are responsible for these attacks. If the UCAVs of the occupying Turkish state are shot down immediately over the airspace of Kirkuk but can fly and attack calmly over Makhmur, then this reveals the approach of the Iraqi government. Under the signed agreement with the occupying Turkish state, they know about the attacks and accept them. If the Iraqi government does not want to go down in history as a government that signed an agreement with a foreign power with a record of genocidal crimes that legitimizes the invasion of its own country, they should renounce this agreement and cancel it immediately.

It is this agreement and the statements made by the Iraqi Defense Minister about our movement, which came to the agenda in recent days, have no other function other than legitimizing Turkey’s invasion and annexation attacks. Instead of defending Iraq against Turkey’s invasion attacks, the Defense Minister defends the special war argumentation put forward by the occupying Turkish army so that the Iraqi people’s attitude against it does not develop and thus legitimizes the attacks. It is noteworthy that these attacks on Makhmur followed recent statements of the Defense Minister of Iraq.

Alliances and agreements with Turkey will bring not development but massacre, not security but war and destruction. Those who claim otherwise should look at the situation in Syria and what it has brought to Bashar al-Assad, whom Erdogan calls his brother. How can Erdogan and Turkey, which kept its consulate open in the center of ISIS during Iraq’s most difficult days and did not offer any help to Iraq, contribute to Iraq’s security today?

We call on the Iraqi state and government to take a stand against Turkey’s attacks and war crimes against civilians, especially the refugees in the Makhmur camp, and to immediately renounce the agreement they signed with the fascist genocidal ISIS-supporter Erdogan. We also call on the UN and its Iraqi mission UNAMI to honor its commitments, to stop looking at events from the perspective of the KDP and the fascist Erdogan, to take the same approach to the safety of refugees in Makhmur as it does to the safety of refugees in other parts of the world, and to take steps to protect the right to life of our people in the camp.”