PYD suffers Stockholm Syndrome for Assad: Deputy PM

ANKARA

AA photo

Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan has suggested Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD) has been suffering from “Stockholm Syndrome” because they have been actually playing into the hands of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has oppressed them.

“The PYD is now in cooperation with al-Assad, who oppressed Kurds. Father [al-]Assad was the one who destroyed Kurds. Is there anyone who destroyed Kurds more than him in history? But, they are able to cooperate with them. They have Stockholm Syndrome,” Akdoğan said on Oct. 30, in remarks delivered to state-run Anadolu Agency’s editor desk.

He also rejected Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş’s identification of northern Syria as “Kurdistan.” 

“West of the Euphrates until Afrin is a region dominated by Turkmens and Arabs, with a small number of Kurds,” Akdoğan stated, adding Turkey was sensitive about this region. 

“Turkey has embraced Kobane and lent support in humanitarian terms. Nevertheless, there is an operation of perception as if [Turkey] was the enemy and rejecting Kurds,” he said, arguing against this perception.

Recalling that Syrian Kurds were not even considered citizens of the neighboring country, Akdoğan said Turkey was “tackling for the rights” of Kurds in Syria when the country had relations with al-Assad.
He stated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged al-Assad to give rights to Kurds and provide them with citizenship. 

The PYD dispersed Kurds who were not liable to the group and burned the houses of Arabs and Turkmens while conducting a “policy of suppression,” Akdoğan added, stressing the Kurdish group was not aiming to scare away Turkmens and Arabs on the western side of the Euphrates.