The Foreign Relations Committee of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) released a statement about Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan's trip to Iraq. Turkey's former intelligence chief met with Iraqi government officials in Baghdad on Wednesday and issued a statement after talks with his counterpart Fuad Hussein in which he stressed Iraq's common interests and sovereignty and called for a "joint fight against terrorism". Fidan argued that the PKK was occupying Iraqi territory and demanded that the PKK be recognised as a terrorist organisation.

The KCK statement includes the following:

"The former Head of MIT [Turkish intelligence] and current Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in Baghdad. In a subsequent statement, he emphasized common interests and Iraq’s sovereignty and called for a ‘joint fight against terrorism’, claiming that the PKK occupies Iraqi territory and demanding that the PKK be recognized as a ‘terrorist organization’.

It can be clearly seen in Fidan’s strategy of conducting foreign policy that he is trying to conceal those acts committed when he was head of the MIT intelligence agency and to market his own policy today under the guise of ‘diplomacy’.

It is the Turkish Foreign Minister, who is responsible for the Turkish invasion on Iraqi territory and the establishment of about 100 outposts, military bases and centers of MIT, who is now shamelessly talking about the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq. It is Hakan Fidan’s intention to normalize Turkey’s military occupation of the Iraqi territory by making the Iraqi head of state accept this condition.

The Turkish state has made Erbil [Hewlêr] a de facto province of Turkey on a politically, militarily and economically level. What the latter is now trying to do is to make its occupation of Kurdistan and Iraq permanent through ‘diplomacy’. In doing so, it is deliberately trying to exploit the silence of the South Kurdish government, the Iraqi state and the UN.

For many years, Hakan Fidan has been known for being a conspirator and provocateur. For example, the following statement by him has become widely known: “If I have to, I will have some missiles fired at Turkey from the Syrian side” in order to be able to invade Syrian territory and legitimize a war. He, who is known for such statements and a corresponding policy, is now conducting ‘diplomacy’ on behalf of Turkey.

It also happened under Hakan Fidan’s responsibility that the cities of South Kurdistan got filled up with MIT agents and the number of hitmen increased. Despite the fact that he is the one being responsible for the murder of dozens of people in Sulaymaniyah, Şengal [Sinjar] and Mexmûr [Maxmur] by giving killing orders, he shamelessly speaks about ‘terrorism’ and ‘joint fight against terrorism’.

The former Head of MIT and the new Turkish Foreign Minister thinks that he can sell his statements based on lies and demagoguery to the whole world with the lie that ‘Turkey is and was waging a great struggle against ISIS’.

On June 10, 2014, when forces of [the so called ‘Islamic State’] IS stormed the Turkish Consulate in Mosul, Consul General Öztürk Yılmaz and the special operations forces guarding the consulate surrendered without firing a single bullet. Hakan Fidan was the head of MIT at this time and he was instructing the Consul General and the special operations forces: “Don’t give IS any difficulties, we are in charge”. As a matter of fact, IS gangs, who seized the Consulate within 10 minutes, made a statement immediately after the raid: “We are ready to meet with Turkish authorities”. IS’s relations with Turkey, which started with this incident, continue today through Hakan Fidan and MIT as a public relationship. The release of the stolen Iraqi oil to the market through Turkey is also an activity carried out in partnership between the Turkish state and IS, and dozens of visual and written information on this issue have been made public. During the period when Hakan Fidan was the head of the MIT, dozens of massacres and bombings were carried out in partnership with the Turkish state and IS, and none of the real perpetrators were caught.

The main purpose of Hakan Fidan’s visits to Baghdad and Erbil in his function as the Turkish Foreign Minister was to develop the policy of turning South Kurdistan into a province of Turkey by excluding the de facto occupation of Iraqi territory from discussion. While at the same time, the attacks and assassinations within Sulaymaniyah, Şengal and Mexmûr continue.

As a movement, we are not in conflict with the Iraqi state nor are we with the people of the country. We have always had friendly relations with Iraq as it is the only regional state that showed to be open for the development of solutions to the Kurdish question and constitutionally guarantee Kurdish existence and freedom. The Turkish occupation state wants to integrate the Iraqi state into its Kurdish genocide policy based on denial and extermination and tries to make the Iraqi state a partner in its crimes. This is the reason why Fidan insists that Iraq should declare the PKK as a ‘terrorist organization’. That he said this to the face of the Iraqi foreign minister, who is a Kurd by himself, and there was no reaction against it, is strange. The colonialist Turkish Republic, with the support of the KDP, is incessantly trying to turn our movement and the Iraqi state against each other. We know that the Iraqi state and government officials, the patriotic intellectuals and the people will not play this game and will resist against this policy.

On this occasion, the people of Kurdistan and Iraq, in particular, the South Kurdistan administration, the Baghdad administration and the UN should make efforts to end Turkey’s occupation of Iraqi territory and to remove all military bases. Land and air attacks on Iraqi territory due to ‘terrorism’ should not be naturalized by making them the justification for the Turkish occupation; The Turkish state should not be allowed to turn Kirkuk, Mosul, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah into the backyard of MIT and IS in the name of political and trade relations. The first and decisive condition for Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is the end of the Turkish occupation of Iraqi territory.