ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish politician in Austria on Wednesday called on her fellow Kurds in the country to cast a vote in Sunday’s parliamentary election to defeat the leading far-right party.
Kurds should “defend themselves against the right-wingers without violence this time by casting their ballots and voting against the Freedom Party,” Berivan Aslan, a member of the Green Party, told Rudaw’s Zinar Shino.
The Freedom Party, which is pushing for tougher immigration laws, is leading in polls ahead of the vote on Sunday.
“Kurds are political and it does not make sense for them not to cast their votes because many things are at stake. If we do not take part in the election, some others will make decisions on our behalf. It should not reach this level,” warned Aslan, who served as a member of the Austrian National Council from 2013 to 2017.
The National Council is the lower house of the country’s bicameral parliament.
Aslan noted that there is a “positive perception” of Kurds in Austria.
“People who knew I have Kurdish origins approached me with positive remarks and said that Kurdish women have great strength and are brave,” she said.
But this was not always the case.
“People did not always treat me in a friendly way. I experienced very dangerous situations as well due to my criticism of radical Islam, Erdogan supporters and the Grey Wolves,” she said, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a Turkish ultra-nationalist group.
In 2020, a man named Feyyaz Ozturk claimed that Turkey’s intelligence agency had blackmailed him and ordered him to assassinate Aslan.
She said Kurds feared for her safety while her opponents “saw me as a nightmare,” but she did not back down.
“I have always resisted these challenges. This could be associated with our history,” she said.
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