Turkish lawmaker: Erdogan at 'war' with Kurds
MP visits Washington to appeal for U.S. help with internal conflict
Published: 5 hours ago
WASHINGTON – Turkish President Recep Tayyup Erdogan has declared “war” on the Kurds inside his own country, which now has moved into “the most totalitarian and the most autocratic period that it has ever experienced in recent history,” a Kurdish member of the Turkish parliament says in a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2Bulletin.
Osman Baydemir said at a round table event at the Washington Kurdish Institute that the rule of law has been suspended by the Erdogan government in several regions, meaning there is a “virtual civil war in seven different provinces of southern Turkey.”
Baydemir said Erdogan’s moves came in response to a recent attack by the Kurdish Workers Party inside Turkey and the increasing assistance the United States is providing inside Syria to the PYD, which Erdogan regards as a terrorist group.
Violent clashes between the PKK and the Turkish government resumed after two-and-a-half years of negotiations in which the People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, had negotiated a peace settlement following a 30-year struggle. He said that during that period there was a mutual ceasefire but, once a draft declaration that outlined reforms and PKK disarmament was reached, Erdogan didn’t recognize it, saying there was no Kurdish issue.
As a result, Baydemir said, Turkey has entered into its most autocratic period. All rule of law has been suspended in the Kurdish portion of Turkey, curfews imposed, public services interrupted and schools closed, with teachers being withdrawn.
He added that Turkish authorities daily are jailing journalists for reporting on violations of human rights and more than 100 academicians have lost their jobs. Like all the Kurds, he said, academicians now are regarded as “terrorists.”
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Being a member of the Turkish parliament and a lawyer with a young family, Baydemir said he is concerned that, like fellow Kurdish parliamentarians, he also could wind up in prison.
He said he is “waiting my turn,” even though in theory members of parliament are supposed to have immunity from imprisonment.
“Erdogan thinks that anybody who appeals for the rights of the Kurds is a traitor,” Baydemir said, “and whoever requests rights for the Kurdish people are terrorists, they’re traitors of the motherland.”
Baydemir was in Washington to brief U.S. State Department officials and members of the U.S. Congress on what he described as “the hidden war” under way in the Kurdish portion of southern Turkey, with the increasing rebellion beginning to spread westward across the country where other Kurds live.
Kurds make up about 20 percent of a total Turkish population of some 80 million.
Baydemir would not comment on the outcome of his talks with the State Department, and refused to identify with whom he spoke.
G2Bulletin later learned that the State Department official with whom Baydemir met was Amanda Sloat, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. An attempt to reach Sloat for comment was unsuccessful.
Baydemir said that he came to the U.S. specifically to talk to State Department officials because of the U.S. concern for human rights, adding that there is “a lot that (President Barack) Obama and the State Department can do.”
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http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/turkish-lawmaker-erdogan-at-war-with-kurds/#hCqql2ruD5RdRhYr.99
