Kurds should have learnt not to do politics based on oil, HDP says

ANKARA

Iraqi Kurdish leaders should have learned one cannot do politics by relying on oil, the way it was done a hundred years ago, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen said on Oct. 31.

“It is never acceptable that Kurdish people, Turkmens, Sunnis or Shiite Arabs have to pay the price for mistakes made by Kurdish politicians,” Bilgen said, addressing the HDP lawmakers in parliament in his first speech to the party following his release after nine months of remaining in jail.

He stressed Turkey has been acting as a very physical side to the tension between the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the central Iraqi government.

“If you will be glad about the fact 175,000 people have been displaced in 15 days, if you will send messages full of valor with the intention of rubbing their nose in it, you cannot say anything regarding regional peace and peace in the world, which is the constitutional assertion of the Republic,” said Bilgen, recalling that 175,000 people were displaced over the recent tension in northern Iraq according to the figures of the United Nations.

He also criticized the resignations of the mayors by pressure from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), despite the fact the mayors had been elected to office, and said the country has to seriously come face-to-face with its democracy.

Turkey’s number one problem is the state of emergency, not elections, said Bilgen, criticizing the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) proposal to hold early elections.