This is our country!” Pro-Kurdish slams Erdogan after he tells them to leave Turkey

On Sunday, Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) co-chair Sezai Temelli, lashed out at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his comments made during a public meeting in Artvin province on Friday.

Temelli, speaking at an election rally held in Turkey’s easternmost province of Igdir on Sunday, was referring to the comments made by Erdogan when he rebuked HDP MPs for using the term ‘Kurdistan’ when referring to land owned by Kurds. “Do we have a region known as Kurdistan in our country? No! If you desire, Northern Iraq has a Kurdistan. Get the hell out and go there!” Erdogan said.

Erdogan: Kurdistan is a heritage of Turkey’s history

However, in November 2013, Erdogan himself mentioned the word ‘Kurdistan’, labeling it as a “heritage of Turkey’s history”. The contradiction in his stance has circulated widely on social media since his remarks on Friday.

Co-chair Temelli slammed Erdogan, saying, “They say our votes are illicit. Discrimination is brought to the point where they do not feel shame anymore. In Ankara, members of parliament and ministers say our votes are unlawful, but in Van and Hakkari they say, ‘We are dependent on the votes of our Kurdish brothers.’ First, you should get together and decide whether our votes are unlawful or not.”

Temelli carried on, saying, “Who are you and whom are you expelling? How dare you! This is our country! Our votes are legitimate.”

As President, you can’t dare expel people: Pervin Buldan

In Uludere district of Turkey’s southeastern Sirnak province, Pervin Buldan, HDP co-leader, also denounced Erdogan’s remarks, saying, “You don’t have the right to expel the people of this country. As a President, you can’t dare to.”

On 7 October 2018, at an AKP meeting in Ankara, Erdogan, referring to the local elections of March 2019, said, “If those involved in terror come out of the ballot box, we shall appoint trustees without delay.” Out of 102, 94 municipalities in cities and towns with Kurdish majority are now administered by trustees, in place of the mayors elected in the 2014 elections.

Erdogan had, time and again, equated HDP with the outlawed PKK, which has waged an armed insurgency in southeast Turkey for decades. His administration accused the opposition of allying with PKK as local elections loom, and called for HDP to pull-out of the race for several metropolitan municipalities, including Istanbul and Ankara, in favor of the opposition.

Ankara prosecutor investigates HDP co-chair for “making terrorist propaganda”

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from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/03/05/this-is-our-country-pro-kurdish-slams-erdogan-after-he-tells-them-to-leave-turkey/