ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A diverse group of lawmakers have formed the Kurdish Friendship Group at the European Parliament to show solidarity with Kurds and seek political solutions to Kurdish issues.
The Kurdish Friendship Group “are members of different political parties and of different European countries sitting here, but we are united in the issue… it is an important topic to give strong support to the Kurdish question,” Member of the European Parliament Andreas Schieder told Rudaw on Friday.
The goal of the group is “to send a strong signal of solidarity and support from the European Parliament,” he said.
Schieder emphasized the need for reaching a political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey where recent hopes for a renewed peace process have been strained after Ankara removed three Kurdish mayors and replaced them with trustees.
Schieder said they are watching the developments.
“We saw that in Turkey, Turkish functionaries and mayors had been put into arrest again. We have also seen that there was little attempt in order to come to a political solution and to speak to Abdullah Ocalan,” he said.
In October, Turkey’s ultranationalist politician Devlet Bahceli proposed inviting jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan to address the Turkish parliament and declare the dissolution of his group - considered by Ankara to be a terror organization. He repeated the suggestion this month.
After Bahceli, who leads the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), suggested opening the door to Ocalan, the jailed PKK leader was permitted to receive a visit from his family, for the first time in four years.
Turkey has long wanted to join the European Union, but its accession has been delayed because of concerns over its human rights record.
Speaking at the European Political Community summit in Budapest earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “There is no reasonable justification for blocking the EU accession process of a candidate country like Turkey, which has long made significant contributions to the prosperity and security of Europe."
He also said he wants to see “concrete cooperation” from Europe in the fight against the PKK, Anadolu Agency reported.
