The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) released a statement on Thursday calling upon Turkey to cease its military operation into Kurdistan Region in Iraq (KRI), to withdraw all its troops from the region, and to re-engage in negotiations with the Workers’ Party of Kurdistan (PKK) for a sustainable and just resolution of the Kurdish Question.

The statement, read out by the party’s central committee member Choo Chon Kai, condemned the latest cross-border offensive of the Turkish military, and said:

“While the international news is dominated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, we must not ignore the ongoing aggression against the Kurds by Turkey, a NATO member, with the latest aggression taking place in South Kurdistan (Northern Iraq). The Turkish military is also stepping up its attack on the liberated territories of Rojava (Northeast Syria).”

He continued:

“Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the increasingly authoritarian Turkish President who hypocritically pretended to be a ‘peacemaker’ in the Ukraine war, has ordered the latest round of cross-border attacks beginning on 17 April 2022, targeting areas controlled by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas in South Kurdistan. One of Erdoğan’s plans is to take over territories controlled by the PKK and establish its own military bases there. The Turkish military has already set up dozens of military bases in the region. Parallel to the Turkish invasion of South Kurdistan, the Turkish military continues to deploy drones to attack and kill people in Rojava (Northeast Syria).”

Noting that the Erdoğan administration is ‘pursuing systematic repression against the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and that since 2016, over 10,000 HDP members have been arrested on all kinds of trumped-up charges,’ the party called on Turkey,

“To immediately cease its military aggression on South Kurdistan and withdraw all its troops from the region,”

“To renew negotiations – in which the PKK has shown their readiness to engage – to find a sustainable and just solution to restore peace in the Kurdistan region,”

“To recognise the democratic right to self-determination of the Kurds, as the basis for a political solution to the Kurdish Question.”