The second congress of the Kurdistan Free Society Movement (Tevgera Azadi) has started in Sulaymaniyah city of South Kurdistan this morning. Representatives of various political parties from four parts of Kurdistan and 300 delegates are attending the congress.

Tevgera Azadi Deputy Co-chair Hüseyin Kerküki spoke to ANF about the congress, through which -he said- they want to begin the coming process stronger.

Kerküki said: “The conference is of importance for the attainment of stronger gains through the advancement of Kurds' national unity amid the crisis in Southern Kurdistan and the '3rd World War' in the Middle East. He noted that the congress will last two days to enable an efficient exchange of views by all the delegates.

KCK sent a written message to Tevgera Azadi’s 2nd Congress held in Sulaymaniyah and sent their wishes that the congress serves national unity. KCK also pointed out the discussions over Shengal in their message and, identifying Shengal as an issue of morality, conscience and politics, stated that anybody abusing the matter would not be acceptable.

“We believe that your congress will carry out important discussions in this important and historic period and arrive at necessary results,” says the KCK message and continues:

“We believe that you will use this congress as a foundation to guarantee the interests of the Kurdish people. There is an intense struggle in the region. For this struggle, even though the Kurdish gains are great, there are still great dangers. The global powers and the invading forces defending the status quo in the region form alliances and try to dissolve the Kurds’ gains. In such a period, if Kurds can solve their internal problems, no colonialist power can stand against that.

As it is known, there has been an internal crisis in Southern Kurdistan for some time now. If the Southern Kurdistan Federation had been democratized, it would become an important democratic force both for Kurdistan and the region, and could have overcome this crisis situation by helping develop the Kurdish national unity. A Southern Kurdistan Federation that has solved internal problems and is en route to national unity wouldn’t have to act in accordance with the interests of certain powers in the region. But, some political powers in Southern Kurdistan are hurting Kurdish national interests with alliances and relations they developed with Erdoğan and the AKP government. Erdoğan and the Turkish state are trying to economically invade Southern Kurdistan. It must be known that Erdoğan and AKP are representatives of an anti-Kurdish political movement. Any relationships with them will serve that end. In this context, what should be done in the face of this is to take politics of unity as a basis.

In this period, the fundamental agenda for our people is the national congress. The basic demand of our people is to take their honorable place among the peoples of the world by achieving internal peace and protecting against external attacks. The internal issues in Southern Kurdistan will also be solved through this approach. Because the national congress will be both a center for the solution of problems, and a mechanism where national politics develop. Because we know that the occupying regional states put their interests first in their relationships with parties. Similarly, international powers have taken to engaging with the Kurds on basis of their own regional interests.

The Shengal issue isn’t a problem of power. It isn’t an allocation problem between Hewler and Baghdad. The Shengal issue is a matter of existence or extinction. Before political interests, it is a problem of politics, conscience and morality. And the solution to this problem has to be based upon the self volition of the people of Shengal.

What should happen here is that the Southern Kurdistan Federation should get democratized and solve the issues through democratic means. The priority for Shengal is achieving self defense. Again in the region there are so many different groups living together. They can only defend themselves against all attacks and masascers by taking up self defense.”