‘Turkey will not succeed in opposing the Kurds,’ Demirtas

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Selahattin Demirtas called out Turkey’s policy against the Kurds at a conference in Washington DC on Friday.

“Tens of Kurds are being killed every day. Heavy weapons are being used against civilians every day,” Demirtas said. “A thousand homes have been destroyed just in Cizre.”

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey, attended the conference in the US to discuss democratic autonomy and self-governance.

“We could have done more for peace in Turkey,” he continued. “The Turkish president and prime minister are committing crimes against civilians and the Turkish president called for homes to be destroyed.”

Demirtas also said that those who oppress people are the ones who are scared, not those who have been oppressed.

He noted there is no difference between Turkey in 2016 and Turkey in the 1990s when it was oppressing Kurds in an organized way.

“It is not just Kurds who have been oppressed in Turkey, other ethnicities have also been oppressed,” he added.

“Turkey will not succeed in opposing the Kurds,” he vowed.

Salih Muslim, co-chairman of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), attended the conference via Skype and said that the PYD has good links with other Kurdish parties in Turkey and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

Muslim added that the PYD has military ties with the United States though they have been told that the US does not support them politically.

‘Turkey will not succeed in opposing the Kurds,’ Demirtas

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