The Executive Council Co-presidency of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) released a statement on the rising tension in Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) where the Turkish army has increased its military operations, attacks and activities and seeks to invade territories with the help of the Kurdish autonomous government led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

The statement by KCK Executive Council Co-presidency said: “The executive councils of the PKK and KCK have made it clear in their statements that they have no problem with the KDP and the Southern Kurdistan (Bashur) government. They stated that the KDP manifests negative attitude because of its relations with the Turkish state and Turkey’s impositions.

Responding to Barzani’s allegations that the PKK invaded some territories while peshmergas fought against ISIS, the statement continued; “Guerrilla did not take Shengal from another force. They freed it from ISIS nad thus saved the KDP from being responsible for a greater genocide. This struggle of the guerrilla preserved the honor of the KDP in the first place. Indeed, it was again the guerrilla to defend Kirkuk to the end during the times of conflict in the city after the 2017 referendum.”

KCK Executive Council Co-presidency statement further includes the following;

Comrade Murat Karayıilan from the People’s Defense Center Headquarters Command also expressed that the KDP sought to encircle the guerrilla through troops and weapons transport. He said this was a preparation and imposition of war and called for sensitivity from the Kurdish people and the public. He also called for KDP Leader Mr. Masoud Barzani to obviate such a situation. While the public was waiting to hear Barzani’s answer, he made a statement in which he listed reasons to give legitimacy to his war decision. In doing so, he distorted facts known to the entire Kurdish people, trying to steer the public in the wrong direction.

The decision for a war against the PKK has already been made

In his statement, KDP Leader Masoud Barzani listed reasons for the concentration of troops in the region and the planned siege. In doing so, he declared his intention to wage war against the PKK and made it clear that a corresponding decision has already been made and that the appropriate basis and opportunity are being sought. He says: 'War among Kurds is wrong, but ...'. Then follows a list of reasons why the KDP will wage war. While the Kurdish people expected a level-headed attitude and a refusal to go to war, he called on the guerrillas to give up their territories and stop the Kurdish struggle for existence against the Turkish state. This makes clear with what motivation the guerrilla areas are besieged.

The KDP has a problem with the PKK

The Executive Council of the KCK and the Executive Committee of the PKK have declared earlier that they have no problem with the South Kurdistan government or the KDP. They have stressed that the KDP has taken a negative stance on the freedom movement because of its relations with Turkey and under Turkish pressure. The PKK does not have a problem with the status of South Kurdistan, nor does it exert military pressure, as Masoud Barzani claimed in his statement. On the contrary, it is the KDP that has a problem with the PKK because of its relations with the Turkish state, which besieges guerrilla areas and exerts military pressure. It is known all over the world that you cannot have good relations with the Turkish state if you do not take a stand against the PKK. It is also an undeniable fact that Turkey will only enter into good relations with a Kurdish political movement if they are based on opposition to the PKK.

By trying to create the false impression in the Kurdish public that the PKK has a problem with the status of Southern Kurdistan and is damaging the region, a shift in KDP’s discourse is intended to legitimize its own aggression. In all the achievements that exist today in Southern Kurdistan and the other parts of Kurdistan, the PKK has a big share and plays an important role in its preservation. The PKK has created a pro-Kurdish political climate in 50 years of struggle with tens of thousands of dead, tens of thousands of war-disabled and hundreds of thousands of prisoners all over the world. Without this climate, the achievements of today would not have been achieved and could not have been defended. Therefore, the achievements in Southern Kurdistan are not only due to the KDP, but also to the other political parties and the struggle in all four parts of Kurdistan. This contribution cannot be denied. Without doubt, we also have the responsibility to protect these achievements. We have made this clear dozens of times and demonstrated it in our practice. This is known to the whole Kurdish people.

The PKK will always defend the achievements of the Kurdish people

The greatest threat to the achievements in Kurdistan are the colonialist Turkish state and the IS. The IS has attacked the liberation forces and the achievements of the Kurdish people in Rojava, Bashur and Bakur. Behind these attacks was the Turkish state, which is the leader of the Kurdish hostility. When the IS attacked Southern Kurdistan, there was the danger that all the achievements would be lost. Faced with this danger, the guerrilla has rushed to defend Southern Kurdistan without hesitation. It was the guerrillas who held the gate to Hewlêr [Erbil] and prevented Kirkuk from being taken by the IS shoulder to shoulder with the peshmerga. Bashur’s political forces have called on the guerrillas to defend the region. This call was made with the knowledge and approval of the KDP leadership. KDP leader Masoud Barzani went to the Maxmur camp afterwards to thank the guerrillas for holding the gate to Hewlêr when more than half of the city was already empty. He personally expressed his thanks to the great HPG commander Şehîd Tekoşer Gever. At the same time, he criticized the Turkish state for not providing any help and just watching the IS attack. In view of these facts, does it not mean to make fun of the memory and the mind of the Kurdish people by claiming that the PKK occupied certain areas during the IS attack?

The PKK saved the honor of the KDP in Shengal

The KDP now declares those who held the gate to Hewlêr illegal. In the same way it treats hostile those who saved the honor of the KDP in Shengal. According to Masoud Barzani's statement, the guerrillas went to Shengal to occupy the region while the KDP fought against the IS. However, the whole world knows that the military forces of Iraq and the KDP were no longer in Shengal when the guerrillas rushed in and intervened against the murderous attack of the IS. The guerrillas did not take Shengal away from another force, they liberated the region from the IS. In doing so, it saved the KDP from responsibility for an even greater genocide. With its intervention, the guerrilla saved the honor of the KDP above all. It was also the guerrillas who defended the city to the end during the fighting in Kirkuk after the 2017 referendum and were the last to leave.

Within the struggle against the IS, the PKK and the guerrillas have trained the Yazidi youth and helped to build up their own defense forces. After that they withdrew. At the moment there is a share of Arab young people within the YBŞ, which was created as a self-defense force, but the vast majority are children of the Yazidi people. Since the Yazidis belong to the most oppressed part of the Kurdish people, Sunni and Alevi Kurds have also come to their aid in the fight against the IS. Even Arab fighters and members of other peoples have fought shoulder to shoulder with the Yazidis against the IS. In this respect, the allegations about Shengal are far from any reality. Êzidxan is currently defended and led by the Yazidi population there.

The guerrillas are now in the same areas where they were during the IS attack. These are the same areas as in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. In this respect, the assertion that the guerrillas used the IS attack to occupy certain areas is completely unfounded. The purpose is to manipulate the public and justify the current and future attacks.

The guerrillas do not block the local population

According to a KDP claim, the PKK has depopulated villages and prevented people from settling there. This assertion is also designed to distort the truth and deceive the public. The empty villages were depopulated during the Saddam government. There are many villages in the areas where the guerrillas are present, and the number of people living in these villages is increasing every day. In some villages, however, settlement is not possible due to the Turkish attacks, or the KDP prevents access to them with the idea that the PKK is being supported. There is not a single village where the PKK or the guerrillas have prevented an influx. It is also not right that the guerrillas put pressure on villages and levy forced taxes. The Qandil area is considered a symbol of the guerilla and the liberation movement. In recent years, it has become the area where most people have settled and where most homes are built. Instead of opposing the fact that people from the villages are killed and their houses and cultivable land are damaged in the daily air raids of the Turkish state, it is claimed that the PKK is preventing people from settling and rebuilding. This assertion serves only the purpose of absolving the aggressor of his guilt.

No reaction to attacks of the Turkish army

The KDP declares the guerrilla fighting in all parts of Kurdistan for forty years as an occupier, but says nothing about the Turkish state, which occupies strategically important positions in Southern Kurdistan, which, as in the independence referendum of 2017, has distinguished itself as a pioneer of the Kurdish hostility, has built dozens of military bases and is continuously carrying out attacks. KDP even legitimizes and agrees with the presence of these anti-Kurdish forces.

The PKK has never collaborated with military forces of a colonialist force. The KDP has, however, carried out attacks on guerrilla areas together with the Turkish state several times. There have been no military hostilities between the KDP and the PKK for more than twenty years. In recent years, however, the KDP has again made preparations for war against the guerrilla areas and carried out attacks. In addition, hundreds of guerrilla fighters have fallen because intelligence information has been passed on to the Turkish state. This war against the guerrilla has taken place although it was said that there will never be another war between Kurdish forces.

KDP does not speak out against the Kurdish genocide policy

At the moment the Turkish state is not only waging a genocidal war in Southern Kurdistan. Parts of Rojava have been occupied and there are constant attacks on the Shengal region, which is synonymous with the existence of the Yazidi people. Leaders like Zekî Şengalî and Zerdeşt Şengalî as well as many Yazidi fighters have been killed. Instead of taking a stand against this genocide policy of the Turkish state and the attacks on all parts of Kurdistan, the KDP legitimizes and incites these attacks. Is it a patriotic task to preserve and defend the KDP’s power over the Kurdish society? Is it compatible with patriotism if the KDP does not stand by the anti-Kurdish policy in the other parts of Kurdistan, while the PKK and the guerrillas have defended Southern Kurdistan in all difficult times?

KDP’s assertions coincide with those of Turkey

To legitimize its attacks, the Turkish state claims that the PKK wants to occupy Hewlêr and Sulaymaniyah. The KDP makes similar claims. That the PKK wants to take these cities is a ridiculous statement. Rather, the guerrillas have always shown with a patriotic sense of responsibility that these areas must be protected. Not even the despotic gods of mythology would deny this fact.

With the lies that PKK members have been caught who wanted to carry out attacks on their leadership and representations abroad, black propaganda has been carried out to create a basis for the upcoming war. The KDP chairman's statements are also intended to legitimize the war policy being conducted. The fact that the black propaganda was a lie has been exposed. Only then did the statements by KDP Chairman Masoud Barzani come to pass.

Because of its relations with the Turkish state, the KDP has recently intensified its hostility and attacks on the PKK and guerrillas. The KDP has adopted this attitude at a time when the Turkish state is attacking the liberation movement everywhere and forcing all its contacts to support the PKK's destruction. The fact that this is turned into a comprehensive war is due to the political, economic and social problems in Southern Kurdistan. Apparently these problems are meant to be covered by a war against the PKK. With this attitude, at the same time, the agenda is changed in order to cover up the Kurdish hostility and the genocide policy of the Turkish state.

No war against Kurdish forces

For us, a decision for a war against the KDP or any other Kurdish force is impossible. Such a war is not in our intention and does not correspond to our way of thinking and our attitude. Although the KDP settled in Zînî Wertê in close proximity to the guerrillas and Turkish jets bombarded guerrillas, we acted calmly and tried to make the martyrs the reason for improving our relations. This was also our attitude toward the KDP’s attempt to provoke skirmishes in Xinêre and Behdînan. However, the KDP has taken the siege of the guerrilla territories to a new level and is pushing to immobilize the guerrillas and force them to surrender. The Turkish state supports this action of the KDP with air attacks. The KDP has thus put its war decision into practice.  

The fact that the KDP is besieging the guerrillas and letting the Turkish state bomb them is a matter of concern to the entire Kurdish people and their political forces. If the KDP wants to complete the genocide policy and the annihilation attacks of the Turkish state, it weakens the achievements in all parts of Kurdistan and confronts the Kurdish people with great dangers. It is a historically fatal mistake to see the tension only as a conflict between PKK and KDP. For this reason, we call on all Kurdish people, the public, political forces, women, youth, intellectuals, artists and friends of the Kurdish people to take a stand against the KDP’s war policy based on the siege of the guerrilla areas and to prevent that this will cause great harm to the Kurds and the democratic forces.

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