A senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) paid her condolences to the representatives of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in the city of Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, after deputy co-chair of the Executive Council of the AANES, Farhad Sibli, was killed in a Turkish drone strike on Friday.

Referring to the Turkish president Erdoğan as ‘the Turkish sultan’ and noting that he is not moved by mere words of condemnation, Shahnaz Ibrahim Ahmed stated that they intend to change the way they treat Turkey.

Speaking to Roj News, Ahmed said that the latest drone strike was ‘an apparent incursion on South Kurdistan soil’, and that it constituted ‘an attack on people’s daily lives.’

She continued:

“We had too much talk over this issue, and we’ve condemned so many times, but the Turkish sultan cannot comprehend that kind of language. So we should change our language. He must understand that the lives of these people are precious (…) An attack on a child and villagers, burning their villages; killing people in front of the public eye who came to visit us and for medical treatment. This is not acceptable. Here, reporters ask PUK’s opinion about the attacks in the past two months in Sulaymaniyah: The assassination of Zeki Çelebi, attacking civilians in Chamchamal, and this recent one in Kalar. Why do these attacks continue?”

She added:

“We, as the PUK, have plans to change the way we talk, our relations, and our treatment of the other side.”

Bitterly observing that attacks by drones were treated like a ‘computer game’ by Turkish authorities, she said:

“The sultan of Turkey should know that these drones are like some sort of computer game that actually threatens and targets the lives of our people. They killed a person today; yesterday and the day before, others. Last month, last year, others. There’ll be another one killed tomorrow. Bombarding villages, for what?”

She concluded with strong words, comparing the Turkish president to dictators of the worst kind in history:

“If this sultan aims at taking up the cause of Saddam and Hitler, let him read history so that he sees what ultimately befell them.”