Leyla Güven, who is a PKK-affiliated member of Turkish parliament for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has recently said that Barzani and the authorities in Kurdistan Region should not open the doors for Turkey in southern Kurdistan, or they will not remain silent.
It comes as a surprise that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) makes such a call while it shows no respect to the Kurdistan Region and its legitimate rule. The PKK openly violates the sovereignty of the Kurdistan Region and it considers this political entity as a house with no doors that is free to move in and out. PKK has caused the engagement of the Turkish army in the region, and it has faced the people of the Kurdistan Region with various sufferings.
The truth is that PKK, before Turkey, has violated the Kurdistan Region’s borders, rules, and legitimacy. It has made the region a battleground for its useless conflicts with Turkey.
The ones who opened the doors for Turkey to move in, are the PKK not Kurdistan Region authorities; what has given the Turkish army the excuse to cross into Kurdistan Region is PKK’s escape from its real battleground to the Kurdistan Region territories.
The best way to end the Turkish army’s presence in the Kurdistan Region is PKK’s return to its actual battleground and ending its forced will in the region.
Respecting the legitimate rule of the Kurdistan Region will also help the safety of the people and the stability of the region if PKK alters its policies in this regard. The Turkish army is stationed on Kurdistan Region territories under the pretext of PKK’s presence in the region, and it’s only the PKK who is able to take away the excuse from Turkey.
PKK claims that the southern part of Kurdistan is for every Kurd, and it can be used for the struggle of other parts of greater Kurdistan. However, the party itself prevents not Kurds from other parts of greater Kurdistan, but Kurds from the Syrian Kurdistan even, to take part in the political process in Rojava, only because they are not affiliated with the PKK. The interesting point is that PKK resorts to nationalistic rhetoric to accuse the KRG of allowing Turkey in Kurdistan Region while it is principally against nationalism, branding it as racism and chauvinism.
PKK should finally realize the fact that the Kurdistan Region is free, recognized, and safe with Barzani’s leadership, Peshmerga’s courage, and its peoples’ strength in the face of challenges. Kurdistan Region is not open to anyone’s military incursion. If the PKK stops giving the Turkish army an excuse, neither Turkish troops nor the soldiers of any other country would step onto Kurdistan Region’s soil.
