HDP accuses gov’t of hypocrisy over PYD and Süleyman Şah operation

ANKARA

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Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ has accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of inconsistency and hypocrisy for insisting on labeling as “terrorist” the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the political wing of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia of the Syrian Kurds, despite receiving support from the group for the evacuation and relocation of the Tomb of Süleyman Şah.

“What kind of a politics is this? Receiving support from the PYD on the one hand and calling them ‘terrorists’ on the other,” Yüksekdağ said on Feb. 24, addressing a regular meeting of her party’s parliamentary group.

“The relocation of the Tomb of Süleyman Şah is one of the AKP’s spurious victories. If you listen to AKP propagandists, you might suppose that this is a heroic one,” she added.

“This tomb is now located in Rojava. The Turkish flag has been secured by the people of Kobane. This message of respect should be well understood,” Yüksekdağ said, echoing what Nazmi Gür, the deputy co-leader of the HDP in charge of external affairs, told the Hürriyet Daily News on Feb. 23.

Aşme is a Kurdish village liberated from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants 10 days ago, and the transfer of the Tomb of Süleyman Şah to the village was only possible because it was “based on an agreement with the Kobane administration,” Gür said. He stressed the necessity of “formal dialogue between Turkey and the Kobane canton” in Rojava, which is the name Kurds use for the Syrian Kurdish heartland in the north of Turkey’s neighbor.

Meanwhile, Yüksekdağ also said Ankara must reopen the Mürşitpınar border gate to Kobane and lift the embargo at the gate, in order to provide assistance for the reconstruction of Kobane.