The European Representative of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Devriş Çimen, stated in an article he wrote for the US-based online magazine Jacobin that Turkey's security concerns are a threat to the Kurds and called on Western governments to put an end to short-sighted policies.

Çimen recalled that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had pushed Sweden and Finland to crack down on Kurdish groups in exchange for NATO membership citing his country’s “legitimate security concerns”. However, Çimen said that it’s the long-oppressed Kurds who have most to fear.

Turkey’s strongman was able to extract a string of concessions from the Nordic countries, the United States, and NATO — recognizing Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO bids only after signing a memorandum that would again turn the Kurds into victims, Çimen wrote.

The HDP representative cited Erdoğan's unofficial coalition partner ultranationalist Devlet Bahçeli as saying that the NATO memorandum was a “strategic gain for our country and at the same time a national success”.

“This is, indeed, a step forward in Turkey's war against the Kurds and for a government that needs such “successes” to prop up its domestic rule,” he said.

Çimen reacted to the international community saying that “it is my sad experience that people will talk about the Kurds but without the Kurds being part of the talks. And once again, instead of listening to the Kurds, the West is caving in the face of Erdoğan’s blackmail”.

Çimen remarked that the Kurdish freedom movement promotes democracy, women’s liberation, ecology, popular participation, and freedom as an alternative to the authoritarian regimes in the Middle East that undermine freedoms.

He pointed out that even though Western governments have been vocal to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion, they have remained silent toward the persecution of the Kurds.

“But when it comes to the Kurds themselves, the West is perfectly willing to throw these values away — and throw the Kurds to the wolves,” Çimen wrote.

Çimen criticized the West that recognized Erdoğan’s demands that include “Turkey’s re-entry into the F-16 fighter jet program; the resumption of full arms trading with the two Nordic countries; the extradition of Kurdish exiles and political figures, including an Iranian Kurdish MP in the Swedish parliament, Amineh Kakabaveh, who has no ties to Turkey whatsoever; and an end to these countries’ limited support for political dialogue with Kurdish representatives and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES)”.

Çimen also revealed that Turkey is planning new military attacks against AANES, which would target the regions of Manbij and Tell Rifaat.

“It should never be forgotten that AANES led the struggle on the ground against ISIS on behalf of the world, losing more than 11,000 of its daughters and sons as the official partner of the international coalition to defeat ISIS,” Çimen underlined the role of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to defeat ISIS.

“Thanks to AANES, the millions of Arabs, Kurds, Christians, Turkmen, Circassians, Chechens, and Yezidis live in a direct-democratic, decentralized system.”

“Yet both Russia and the United States (under the Donald Trump administration) gave the green light to Erdoğan’s devastating invasions of the region in 2018 and 2019, killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians.”

“The European Parliament that recently recognized Turkey’s “legitimate security concerns” over the Kurdish movement last year called on Turkey “to withdraw its troops from Northern Syria which it is illegally occupying outside of any UN mandate.” It stated that the Turkish occupation “could amount to ethnic cleansing” against the Kurds, while the United Nations found that Turkey’s occupation of the Afrin region resulted in mass gang rape and kidnapping of Kurdish and Yezidi women, “forcible displacement” on an ethnic basis, torture in the presence of Turkish officers, and the destruction of historical, religious, and cultural sites, among other atrocities,” Çimen added.

Çimen also pointed out that in Turkey thousands of HDP members, including former cochairs, deputies, executives, and mayors, have been arrested since the June 2015 general elections. There are twelve former HDP MPs in jail and many more in exile, while fifty-nine of sixty-five democratically elected HDP comayors have been removed from office.

Moreover, there is also now a case at the Constitutional Court seeking to ban the HDP.

“Erdoğan’s anti-Kurdish and ultranationalistic politics are built on the same anti-Kurdish hate that has resulted in genocides and pogroms throughout history (like the Armenian and Assyrian genocides), and which he uses to bolster himself in the polls in Turkey. His talk of “security concerns” is just an excuse — as a BBC investigation found, the Turkish government has wildly exaggerated the virtually non-existent threat the AANES poses to its borders, in 2018 claiming it had faced “over seven hundred” attacks from the region. In their statements, however, the AANES representatives said that no attack from their region was directed against Turkey and called for dialogue and a democratic solution. Even now, none of the regions that Turkey wants to attack are even on the Turkish border,” Çimen wrote.

“Autocrats and oppressors cannot have legitimate “security concerns.” On the contrary, the oppressed have security concerns that should be morally, politically, and legally supported by everyone else,” he added.

“Kurds are not part of any body with the power to decide whether NATO should be expanded, reduced, or dissolved. But Kurds do have the right to demand a clear commitment to international law, democracy, and freedom, which should also apply to the Kurds.”