Dozens of Kurdish parties and organizations meet for Shengal

ANF
COLOGNE
Tuesday, 16 March 2021, 07:47

Around fifty Kurdish parties and organizations as well as individuals have come together in Cologne to assess the threats made by the Iraqi central government against the Yazidi settlement area of Shengal (Sinjar). Baghdad had demanded last week that the autonomous security forces in Shengal, Asayîşa Êzîdxanê, be handed over to state control. The background to this is the agreement reached last October between Iraq and the South Kurdistan leadership in Hewlêr (Erbil) to take over the region. The Democratic Autonomous Council of Shengal (MXDŞ), which has administered the settlement area under the principle of self-government since the ISIS onslaught in August 2014, considers the agreement illegitimate because the Yazidi community has not been included in the process and has announced resistance to possible attacks on the autonomous structures in Shengal.

KDP should enter into a dialogue with the Yazidis

"We, as representatives of the various parties and organizations of Kurdistan, call on Iraq to respect the Yazidi people’s right of self-determination," said former HDP deputy Leyla Birlik on the sidelines of the meeting in Cologne. From the Kurdish society, the alliance demands to stand up for Shengal without any restrictions.

“Defending Shengal means nothing else than defending Kurdistan," Birlik said and continued; “Kurdish parties are calling on the KDP, the major ruling party in Hewlêr, to sit down at the table with Kurds. The KDP should first and foremost work for the interests of the Kurdish people and enter into a dialogue with the Yazidis. Agreements with Turkey and Iraq should not occupy space on their agenda," Birlik said.

Recognition of autonomous status for the region

With regard to the situation in Shengal, it is now a matter of preventing new massacres like those in Halabja and Qamishlo or further genocides against the Yazidi community. All parties must unite and act on the basis of a Kurdish national consciousness in order to defend the achievements of the Kurds, was the common consensus of the parties in the alliance. Birlik pointed out that the policies of Turkey, Syria and Iran and Iraq are aimed at destroying Kurdish achievements. She noted that the so-called Shengal Agreement was reached at the instigation of the Turkish government and the United States through the mediation of the United Nations. "It is precisely from this perspective that we here in Europe must pull out all the stops for the recognition of Shengal's autonomous status and self-government."

Plot against Shengal

Leyla Birlik, who is a member of the Executive Council of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), described the agreement on the future of Shengal as a "plot" to put the fate of the people there in the hands of "Salafist extremists and Islamists." "The only parties that have refused to participate in this meeting are the KDP and the ENKS. This gives food for thought," the politician said.

The alliance of Kurdish parties and organizations includes:

• PUK

• Tevgêra GORRAN

• KCDK-E

• TJK-E

• Partiya ŞÛÎ - Kurdistana Başûr

• Kongreya Star

• Partiya Zahmetkêşan - Başûr

• PADÊ

• Tevgera Azadî

• PYD

• PDKS