ERBIL, Kurdistan region-- Former deputy of the Turkish intelligence (MIT) describes the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as “an important political movement for Turkey” which could become a “positive force” beyond the country’s borders.
Cevat Ones, 74, who also served as head of the MIT in the Kurdish province of Diyarbakir in early 1990s, told Rudaw that the Turkish political process would not “progress” without the participation of the HDP.
“The progress of the HDP’s politics towards becoming a party for Turkey is important not just for the country, it is also a movement in the Middle East which will have an impact on both Syria and Iraq,” Ones said and criticized efforts to prosecute the pro-Kurdish MPs after removal of their parliamentary immunity.
Over 130 lawmakers, including many from the HDP, have been stripped of their immunity by the parliament and could face trial if the decision wins the support of a referendum.
Ones said if authorities decide to ban the Kurdish party, “a new party will enter the stage instead of the HDP” with a new name but similar issues, he added.
“The Turkish history has shown that the names might change but the issues still remain in the social forces,” he said referring to calls to ban the HDP.
He also praised HDP co-leader Selahettin Demirtas for condemning what Ones called “terror attacks” carried out by the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Several bombings have targeted army and police bases across Turkey, which the PKK’s different military wings have over the past year claimed responsibility for.
The most recent bombing took place in Istanbul’s Fatih neighborhood on June 7, as a car bomb hit a police base in the city killing 6 people and wounding 5.
“The HDP may have done some errors of judgment when the terror bombings continue, but denouncing PKK’s terrorist attacks by Demirtas at a public rally in Diyarbakir was important,” Ones said and added that the HDP move could embolden those who are against such attacks inside the PKK.
Ones also foresaw a partition of Syria and said federalism could be a model for the county, in which, he said, the people in Syria should determine their own fate.
“If an armed group wants to impose its will on others at gunpoint, it will lead to an ethnic war, a war between Kurds and Arabs,” Ones said referring to the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD) in Syria.
