ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Cemil Bayik, co-leader of the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) co-leader, said Turkey attacked the PKK to limit the organization's power in the fight against the Islamic State, or ISIS, in Iraq and Syria, in a televised interview with the BBC.
“Following the parliamentary election in which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saw his party losing power and pro-Kurdish People Democratic Party (HDP) won seats, he couldn’t take it,” said Bayik to the British broadcaster.
Bayik claimed the new offensives against ISIS were initiated by targeting PKK with the intention of attacking and defaming HDP politicians and other Kurdish forces in Turkey and Syria. He also emphasized that by bombing the PKK, Turkey aimed to distract the group from fighting ISIS.
“The only choice to solve the Kurdish issue in Turkey is through negotiation," said the PKK co-leader, adding that military campaigns and war have failed to resolve the conflict in Turkey.
He said the PKK's ceasefire with Turkey needs independent observers to monitor the process.
Bayik claimed the recent sabotage attack on the Kurdistan region's critical Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline was an arbitrary decision by PKK's members inside Turkey. He said the PKK does not work against the Kurdistan Region Government and the attack was not example of such division.
Even so, the official website of the armed wing of the PKK in Turkey, the People’s Defense Force (HPG), on July 29 claimed responsibility for the pipeline attack. In a subsequent statement, the group said that the attack on the pipeline was not an order from the PKK leadership.
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