The Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) fight is against Turkey’s genocidal policies and not against NATO or the United States, PKK Executive Committee Member and People’s Defence Centre (HSM) Headquarters Commander Murat Karayılan said in an interview with ANF on Wednesday.

“But they support this genocide – we want them to stop,” Karayılan said. “Stop being partners with Turkey in their massacres in Kurdistan. Turkey wants to cast a shadow on your democracy. Do not reconcile.”

“We wage a rightful cause in Kurdistan. Turkey is lying. There is no danger to them. What they want is to continue the policy of occupation and genocide in Kurdistan. Everybody should stand against this,” he continued.

Turkey has always taken advantage of conflict among hegemonic powers to carry out its massacres against Kurds, and the current conflict between Russia and NATO over Ukraine is no different, Karayılan said.

“Turkey wants to take advantage of the conflict between Russia and NATO in Ukraine. But the truth here is, the whole world has seen this, Turkey conducts its policies based on animosity against Kurds,” Karayılan said. “There is democracy in Scandinavia, and Turkey is afraid of this.”

The reason Turkey threatens to veto Finland and Sweden’s recent bids to join NATO is twofold, the HSM commander said. “The world must know that Turkey uses chemical weapons against us. They said they should be supported in their fight against terror, so nobody would speak out against them.”

“They wish to rid themselves of these crimes,” he continued. “Today Turkey is committing a universally recognised crime in Zap, Metîna and Avaşîn. This is the greatest danger.”

“Turkey wants to use chemical weapons, have nobody intervene, and destroy the guerrilla. That is why they make such a fuss. And, they want the weapons embargo imposed on Turkey to be taken away by the hand of NATO,” he said.

Turkey fights using primarily NATO weapons, Karayılan continued. “These attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan and northern Syria come from drones purchased from Germany, Britain, Canada and others. Turkey wants the embargo gone.”

Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria in 2019 led to EU member states agreeing to limit arms exports to Turkey, stopping short of a bloc-wide embargo on a NATO member.

Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and others halted their exports, while the EU avoided an official embargo. “We do not wish to support this war and do not want to make arms available,” then-foreign minister of Germany Heiko Maas told reporters at the time.

While Turkey accusing Sweden and Finland of an alliance with the Syrian-Kurdish People’s Defence Units (YPG) is an excuse, Karayılan said, “international powers who have interests in Rojava are not giving in to Turkey”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Turkey’s security concerns should be taken into consideration is telling, Karayılan said. “What are Turkey’s concerns? Turkey’s concern is to destroy the Kurdish people.”

NATO member states and the NATO system wishes to prolong and support a genocidal policy against Kurds for their own interests, Karayılan said. “This is dangerous. Turkey has no concerns. They just want to make terrorists out of every freedom defending Kurd, all Kurds who demand their rights”.

Turkey believes all of northern and eastern Syria as full of terrorists, he added. “There are five million people in Rojava and north and east Syria. Are they all terrorists? Turkey wants to get rid of all the people there, and bring in another nation in their stead. They want to commit the crime of ethnic cleansing in this day and age. It is not right to go soft on them or say their ‘concerns should be considered’. We hope that Sweden and Finland will not sacrifice the Kurdish people. We resist Turkey’s genocidal attacks, we are exercising a legitimate right.”