The growing illusory popular discourse on NATO’s saviour role for Europe has imposed an unexpected burden on the Kurdish people and Turkey’s internationalists, said the Honorary President of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Ertuğrul Kürkçü at the European Peace Conference held by Spain’s left-wing party Podemos in Madrid on 17 February.
Experts, civil society representatives and political party deputies from several countries attended the conference, which gathered in response to the need to create a powerful popular movement all over Europe in order to obstruct those in power who are pushing for military aggression.
Pointing to the European institutions that turned a blind eye to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s war on Kurds for the sake of NATO enlargement, Kürkçü said, “the internationalists of every nation should demand the right of secession for the nations that are oppressed by their nations.”
The HDP MP also emphasised that Erdoğan’s offensive policies against the Kurds led to a massive humanitarian crisis in the 6 February earthquakes, which hit ten provinces of the country mainly populated by Kurds and other minorities.
“Under the pretext of keeping the army on war positions against the Kurds, he has refused deployment of unarmed military personnel to the earthquake zones for search-and-rescue operations during the first 72 hours, the golden hours, thus causing tens of thousands remain trapped to death under the rubble. And in the aftermath, he has imposed emergency rule to halt independent relief efforts,” he said.
