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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A UK cross-party parliamentary group has called on the government to "rethink" its relations with Turkey, and its definition of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation, in a recently released report detailing ongoing Turkish violations against Kurds at home and abroad.
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kurdistan in Syria and Turkey, in a report shared with Rudaw English by the Kurdish People’s Assembly, calls on Westminster to “rethink its relations with Turkey regarding the Kurds and in particular its current overly expansive listing of the PKK as a terrorist organisation.”
The report highlights the “Turkish repression, criminalization, massacres and collective punishment against the Kurdish community and political movement in Turkey,” and asks the UK government to consider the future of Kurdish and other populations in Turkey.
“The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation at the behest of the Turkish government without further checks and safeguards. The system to list terrorist organisations is archaic,” the report quoted the APPG Chair, MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, as saying.
Turkey has launched a series of operations against the PKK in recent years. Its most recent one began in April in the northern border areas of the Kurdistan Region, where the PKK, an armed group fighting for Kurdish rights, has bases.
Ankara’s operations in the Kurdistan Region have led to civilians being killed, injured and forced to abandon their villages.
The cross-party’s report also focuses on Turkey’s behaviour towards opposition parties, namely the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). The HDP has been under pressure for years, accused of being the political wing of the PKK, a charge the party denies. Members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have called for the party's closure.
Hundreds of HDP members and supporters are under investigation or in jail, including Selahattin Demirtas, the HDP's former leader, along with his co-chair Figen Yuksekdag.
“Hundreds of Kurdish activists, journalists, MPs, and mayors have been arrested. The arrests of activists and journalists are particularly concerning in the ability for Turkey to maintain freedom for speech,” Russell-Moyle said.
Many HDP mayors have been removed from their elected positions and replaced by pro-government officials.
The report also addressed Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria (Rojava), which have come under increased attack recently.
Four members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed in an aerial attack on Tel Tamir’s Military Council base on Friday, while two others were killed in another bombardment in Hasaka’s Zarkan district last Tuesday.
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