The External Relations Committee of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) released a statement regarding the latest evaluations of Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq who stated that Rojava should break connections with the PKK and that the Turkish state could attack in the contrary case.

The statement published by the PKK External Relations Committee on Saturday includes the following: “The Kurdish people are going through a critical historic process when the freedom struggle continues growing even more on one hand, and the enemies of the Kurds and their collaborators do not stand idle on the other. The blows dealt by the Kurdistan freedom guerrilla in response to the occupation attacks in Avashin, Zap and Kurdistan in general overstrain the Turkish state and collaborating forces. The colonialist Turkish state and its collaborators are doing all they can in an attempt to frustrate the Kurds’ struggle for freedom and status. While everyone is supposed to act with responsibility and a sense of patriotism in such a fragile and historic process, the repeated statements of KDP’s Masrour Barzani reveal why the Kurdish question has remained unresolved so far and how even heavier it has been rendered.

The successive statements by Masrour Barzani have caused consternation and rejection among the people, said the PKK and continued, "If these statements had not been published in his name, one would certainly assume that they came from a representative of the state of Turkey. To what extent there is a connection to Kurdish patriotism in this, we leave to the assessment of our people. The fact that Masrour Barzani states that the Turkish state has no problem with the Kurds, that the problem is rather the PKK and that Rojava must end its relationship with the PKK because otherwise Turkey will be alarmed and attack, is a sign of collaboration and surrender. He is speaking as the mouthpiece of the Turkish state.

The state of Turkey has been repeating the same tongue twisters everywhere and all the time for forty years. Masrour Barzani underestimates the historical consciousness of the Kurdish people and the degree of national awakening. The people of Kurdistan now know who the friend and the foe is. They are aware of who is a collaborator and who is a patriot. The entire world now sees the colonialist expansionism of the Turkish state as a threat. Only Masrour Barzani of the KDP is not bothered by it. He does not mind when the Turkish state representatives he meets with claim that Kurdistan does not exist. Instead of legitimizing the Turkish occupation and attacks, he should be working to solve the problems of the people of southern Kurdistan in terms of democracy, freedom, fair income distribution and job opportunities. He should not strive for even more power for his family clan, but should feel remorse and take an ethical political stance when young Kurds lose their lives on the way abroad.

The KDP and Masrour Barzani are not only pleasing the enemies of the Kurdish people with their hostility towards the PKK, they are also consuming the political foundation on which their own existence is based. The PKK has thought of nothing but the freedom of the Kurdish people in its struggle that has lasted for half a century and has acted accordingly. Every position and opportunity won for Kurdistan has taken a heavy toll. In the ideological and military victory over ISIS, the PKK has played a crucial role. The freedom guerrillas of Kurdistan fought with great sacrifice from Maxmur to Hewlêr [Erbil], preventing ISIS from occupying southern Kurdistan. What this resistance of the PKK has achieved is also well known to our people in southern Kurdistan.

The defeat of ISIS in Rojava has taken place at the cost of thousands of fallen guerrilla fighters. The Kurdish, Arab, Christian, Turkmen and Chechen peoples have given over ten thousand martyrs in the fight against ISIS. The administration of North and East Syria has emerged from this tribute. It knows best itself to whom it speaks and how. It is not Masrour Barzani who can determine which forces negotiate with what; it is the peoples of Rojava themselves. Masrour Barzani and his supporters have paid no price at all in the fight against ISIS and in the revolution of Rojava. So, with whom do they want to negotiate about what? If Masrour Barzani threatens the people and the administration of Rojava and says: 'Break your ties with the PKK, distance yourselves from it, otherwise we will not have good relations,' then he is bearing the language and mindset of the Turkish state. In the patriotic attitude of the people of Kurdistan, such threats have no place. The people of Rojava, who have been resisting Turkish colonialism and the cruelty of ISIS, will not be intimidated by such cheap threats either. The peoples of northern and eastern Syria and their democratic representatives know for themselves what is the best decision for their future.

The liberation struggle of the Kurdish people is at the point of determining the balances in the region. At such a stage, our people must be vigilant in the face of possible provocations and the legitimization of the Turkish occupying state, and adopt a clear stance. On this basis, we as PKK would like to announce that we will continue the struggle to protect, defend and liberate Kurdistan even more strongly in response to occupation attacks."