The Kurdistan National Congress sent an open letter to several international personalities demanding them to stop the Turkish state's war and occupation strategy.
The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) sent an open letter to Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, Prime Minister of Republic of Iraq, Bashar al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States, Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE), Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The letter reads as follows:
"Dear Excellencies,
In 2011, the Arab Spring protests and uprisings spread to Iraq and Syria. The Turkish state, which wanted to take advantage of this situation, took action to attempt to expand Turkey’s borders to those of Misak-ı Milli (also known as Ahd-ı Milli), a group of resolutions adopted by the Ottoman Parliament 104 years ago which claimed all of Kurdistan, including northern Iraq and northern Syria, to be within the borders of a Turkish state. As a first step to promote Neo-Ottomanism, the Turkish AKP-MHP regime launched a campaign of mass murder and occupation against the Kurdish people. In 2014, the Turkish state established relations with terrorist jihadist gangs in Iraq and Syria and utilised them to pursue this objective.
Turkish President and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have often stated that he intends to occupy all of these areas, which include the area from Aleppo to Mosul, Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk, Sinjar and Behdinan, within the borders of Misak-ı Milli. Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the ultra-nationalist MHP party, a prominent actor in the Turkish deep state and the AKP’s junior coalition partner, has been openly referring to Kirkuk and Mosul as Turkey’s 82nd and 83rd provinces for years. Together with Erdoğan, he is attempting to realise this expansionist goal by provoking the peoples of Kirkuk and Mosul into fighting one another to create chaos, arming Turkmen and other groups.
In 2014, during the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, the Turkish state tried to invade Kobanê using its proxy gangs, and defeated by the heroic resistance of the Kurdish people. Unfortunately, using its military might and proxy militias in concert with manipulative diplomacy on the international stage, Erdoğan was eventually able to invade and occupy Afrin in 2018 and Ras al-Ain (Serêkaniyê) and Tal Abyad (Girê Spî) in 2019, causing great bloodshed and displacement of civilians.
In parallel, the Turkish state has expanded its occupation of Kurdistan by increasing the number of military bases and other instillations in Southern Kurdistan, which is a federal unit under the sovereignty of the Iraqi state, trying to justify these hostile actions using the pretense of “fighting against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)”. In Southern Kurdistan, as a recent VOA report shows, Turkish troops are now boldly entering 30 kilometers into the region with thousands of soldiers and 300 tanks, carrying out identity checks on Iraqi citizens in and around Dohuk. This blatant disregard for international law represents a violation of international treaties and is not only a great threat against us Kurds but also another major element of instability in the Middle East.
The Erdoğan-Bahçeli regime wants to implement the Misak-ı Milli at all costs. To this end, the Turkish state has intensified their diplomatic and military efforts since the beginning of 2024, and they have now pacified the Iraqi government through these efforts. The achievement of the Misak-ı Milli strategy in Kurdistan will lead to expanded occupation of Iraq and Syria, intensified regional conflict, and the displacement and migration of millions of people, and thus concerns the entire Middle East and the international community.
We, the undersigned Kurdish political parties and civil society organisations, call on the governments of Iraq and Syria, the Arab League, the UN, which is responsible for the implementation of international legal norms, the EC, NATO, of which the Turkish state is a member, and the EU and the US, which have strategic relations with the Turkish state, to take urgent and decisive action to stop this occupation.
Signatories:
On behalf of the Joint Diplomacy Committee of Kurdish and Syriac Political Parties and Organisations, the Commission on Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK)"
