Monday’s armed attack on the office of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) in Erbil (Hewlêr), Iraqi Kurdistan, was a strategic attempt to undermine the national unity of the Kurdish people, the Brussels-based Kurdish umbrella group said on Tuesday.
The KNK emphasised that the attack, which left one person dead, was not only an attack on an office or an individual, but a broader attack on the collective unity of the Kurdish people. They claimed that these acts of violence revealed the fear and helplessness of their opponents in the face of Kurdish solidarity and called on all Kurds to recognise this fact and respond accordingly.
The KNK described the incident as part of a wider pattern of attacks orchestrated by the Turkish government and its ”collaborators”. The organisation’s co-president, Ahmet Karamus, also labelled the fatal attack as a “serious crime”, implicating the security forces under the control of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the incident.
The organisation said that the KNK’s office in Erbil is under constant surveillance by regional security and intelligence services, with several CCTV cameras. In light of this, the KNK questioned the competence of the Kurdistan Regional Government and the security forces in Erbil, asking how the attackers managed to breach security and carry out the deadly attack. They called for swift action to apprehend and bring the instigator to justice, holding the regional government and public order responsible if justice is not swiftly served.
The KNK further pointed to what they described as ongoing hostilities by Turkey against Kurdistan, citing recent attack on Arbat airport in Sulaymaniyah, occurring shortly after the Erbil attack. They also highlighted other ongoing attacks in various regions, including northeastern Syria, Sinjar (Shengal), and different parts of the Kurdistan Region.
The KNK concluded that the attack on its office was aimed at breaking the national unity of the Kurdish people. They called on all parties and organisations to unite against these attacks and urged them not to remain silent but instead to come together and protest.