Kurdish politicians in Turkey have argued that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) applies war policies, injustices and hostility against Kurds as an investment for the upcoming presidential elections in 2023, reported Mezopotamya News Agency.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Pervin Buldan and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair Berdan Öztürk spoke at Saturday’s “Call for Justice” rally organised by the HDP in Turkey’s Adana city.

“If France had investigated the massacre against three Kurdish women in Paris 10 years ago comprehensively, the Paris shooting would not have taken place,” said Öztürk.

He also pointed to the peace process between the Turkish authorities and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that failed in 2015 and said that the AKP had started to commit violence against Kurds since then. Öztürk argued the isolation imposed on the founding leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, was another phase of that violence.

“The isolation and war policy of the government is related to each other. Whenever the isolation is sharpened, the Turkish state started to look at the Kurds as an enemy in all four parts of Kurdistan,” said Öztürk.

Following the speech of Öztürk, HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan also condemned yesterday’s attack and called on the French authorities to launch a factual investigation into the attack.

“The ruling party has been feeding on poverty for 20 years by increasing the unlawfulness, injustice, and violence even more,” said Buldan. “They are trying to provide a method of staying in power and winning elections by attacking HDP, Kurds and women. We know that the ruling party, which is likely to lose the election, embraces the unlawfulness and injustice, and as HDP we are against that policy.”

Buldan also mentioned the 2015 peace negotiations that failed, and said that the ruling AKP has chosen the path of war with the Kurds.

“Deputies were sent to prisons, trustees were appointed instead of mayors in Kurdish-populated municipalities and a strict isolation has been imposed on Abdullah Öcalan,” said Buldan.

Finding these steps as an investment for the presidential elections, Buldan said that the operation against the pro-Kurdish DBP and detention of its co-chair Keskin Bayındır is also a part of its war policy against Kurds.

DBP announced on Saturday that several party executives, including the party’s co-chair Keskin Bayındır, were detained in a police raid on its headquarters in Ankara.