Constituents of the alliance the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) formed for the March 31 local elections, Azadi Movement, Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Revolutionary Democratic Kurdish Association (DDKD), Humans and Freedom Party, Kurdistan Communist Party, Platforma Demokraten Kurd-Bakur (PDK-Bakur) and Kurdistan Democratic Party-Turkey (PDK-T), issued a joint written statement condemning the Turkish army’s invasion attacks against Southern Kurdistan.

“THERE CAN BE NO EQUATIONS IN THE REGION WITHOUT KURDS”

The statement called for an immediate end to the invasion attacks and said the following:

“To date, there have been military operations, the Steel, the Hammer, the Dawn, the Sun, the Euphrates Shield… but none of them achieved their intended goals. The ‘Operation Claw’ will only result in the issues getting more severe, both in the country and abroad. There have been dozens of military operations, some we listed here. The outcome: There can’t be a political equation in the region without Kurds. A federal state was founded in the south of Kurdistan, and a federal structure is almost complete in southwestern Kurdistan. So, military politics don’t produce results.”

“THE TURKISH STATE LOOKS FOR A SOLUTION THROUGH WAR”

The statement also pointed to the visits to Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan and said:

“At a time when new peace processes are being discussed, the launch of this military operation shows that Turkey still looks for a solution through war and not politics. With the mission they endow on the Operation Claw in Xakurke, they are seen to be trying for a military solution still, instead of a peaceful, political solution.

Because the target is not just Qandil in the Xakurke operation. They aim to cut off travel between parts of Kurdistan, especially access between southern and southwestern Kurdistan, give a message to the US for their Kurdistan policy and strengthen their hand in Syria. If they achieve results in the Xakurke-Qandil area, they have plans for a military operation to the ‘East of the Euphrates’. Turkey knows through practice that none of these goals are going to be met, but they nonetheless try the military option once again to strengthen their hand in the solution process that has given them a hard time and just in case it would magically work.”

“KURDISH PEOPLE ARE THE KEY TO POLITICS”

“A foreign policy based on hostility against Kurds/Kurdistan produces no results but to isolate the policy maker, as known through experience,” said the statement and continued:

“Yesterday they were demanding a Kurdish language radio station in Egypt be closed, today they object to Kurdish language classes in Japan. The foreign policy that has strained the relationship for long time allies EU and US, and the countless military operations clearly are not producing results. In domestic politics, the endless military and political operations and the cadre of Turkish politicians speaking of Kurdistan in Diyarbakir and claiming that saying Kurdistan is separatism in Ankara has not produced a result to date. The Kurdish people have become the key to politics in Kurdistan, but also in the western cities of Turkey.”

“THE SOLUTION LIES THROUGH A TABLE”

The Kurdish parties’ statement concluded with:

“The solution lies not in war, but in recognizing southwestern Kurdistan like they did for the south and building relationships. The solution is not to build a wall of concrete and a shield of soldiers. The translation of the map surrounding Turkey’s southern and southeastern borders is the fact that southern and southwestern Kurdistan are Turkey’s gates into the Middle East, and the logical thing to do is to develop political and commercial relationships based on friendship and mutual respect. The solution is to reconsider the peaceful, non-violent democratic political solution to the Kurdish issue without delays and to sit down at the table for a solution with Kurdish parties and political cadres.”