HDP Deputy Co-chair for Foreign Relations Hişyar Özsoy spoke about the attacks on Afrin in his speech in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Özsoy mentioned the increasing human rights violations, pressure, arrests and detentions in Turkey, said that in the last two years, tens of thousands of people have been imprisoned under the guise of anti-terror efforts and added: “There are MPs, elected mayors, journalists, NGO representatives and human rights activists among these people. Anybody who is critical against the government is considered a terrorist. When this Assembly put Turkey in a review process, government representatives said the PACE supported terrorism. That is why we must go beyond this terrorism discourse.”

“IT’S NOT ANTI-TERROR EFFORTS, IT’S A WAR AGAINST A PEOPLE”

Özsoy stressed that the government’s anti-terror efforts discourse does not reflect the truth and continued: “As a member of an opposition party, the HDP, I can tell you this much: There are no anti-terror efforts in Turkey. There are no anti-terror efforts in Syria. The Turkish government is waging a war against a people, the Kurdish people, under the guise of anti-terror efforts.

KURDS ARE TRYING TO BUILD THEIR OWN LIVES

Kurds are an indigenous people in the Middle East, and they are trying to build an autonomous political lifestyle amidst this crazy political chaos and violence in the Middle East.

Actually, President Erdoğan personally said countless times that Turkey would do anything they can to prevent the formation of another Northern Iraq in Syria. And that means they won’t ‘allow’ for the autonomous self government of Kurds in Syria. That is the issue here, and that has nothing to do with anti-terror efforts. Because if it did, then I would say this to those who support Turkey’s arguments: If you can send over 70.000 people to prison in one year on terrorism charges, the problem is not with your citizens but with your country and your government.

A COUNTRY THAT CONSTANTLY PRODUCES TERRORISTS

Turkey is constantly producing terrorists, imaginary or otherwise. In this sense, I request all my colleagues to deconstruct that exceptional argument that Turkey is fighting terrorism. Because now anti-terror efforts are used as a discursive tool to criminalize the opposition and attack any and all who don’t agree with the Turkish government.

Unfortunately, President Erdoğan has launched his campaign for the Presidential Elections by invading Afrin. That is the gist of their argument.”