Madam Speaker, Kurdish Canadians, indeed Kurds around the world, are deeply concerned about the potential for grave tragedy throughout Kurdistan.
On December 13 of last year I asked the Solicitor General a question in the House concerning the listing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, now known as KADEK, which stands for Kurdistan Democracy and Freedom Congress. I asked the government why it was now criminalizing Canadians who want to support the peaceful struggle of the Kurds for justice and human rights, for respect for their language and culture and for an end to the jailing of Kurdish MPs like Leyla Zana. I asked the government why it added this peaceful organization which quite some time ago renounced the armed struggle for justice for the Kurdish people. The answer from the Solicitor General was totally unacceptable.
I want to highlight today, in the brief time I have, a number of other very serious concerns affecting the Kurdish community. Recently Turkey banned a legal party known as KADEK. It was a deliberate provocation by the Turkish government, there is no doubt about it. It was hoping that Kurds in Turkey would react violently, thereby giving the Turks an excuse to crack down and for invading Iraqi Kurdistan to “root out the terrorists”. Five KADEK mayors in Turkey have already been jailed. Others have been interrogated and/or detained, but so far there has been no violent reaction from the Kurds in Turkey.
We all know that the Turks have a terrible history of repression and brutality directed at the Kurds within Turkey. They have destroyed villages. Currently Human Rights Watch has pointed out that they are refusing to allow thousands of villagers to return to their homes three years after the hostilities have ended.
Now, with the United States led invasion of Iraq, there is a very serious concern that the Turkish government may take advantage of this to invade Iraqi Kurdistan. This would have a disastrous impact on the Kurds in northern Iraq.
I am here today to call on the government to not only revert its decision with respect to the listing of KADEK, but to call on our government to speak out forcefully and call on the Turkish government and all other neighbouring countries not to intervene militarily in Iraqi Kurdistan for any reason.
Our government must also call for the protection of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan from a possible retaliatory use of chemical and/or biological weapons by the Iraqi regime. Our government must call as well for the recognition of the right to self-determination for the Kurdish people.
This is a critical time for the Kurdish people, particularly in northern Iraq. They have carved out communities there in which there is a degree of autonomy, and we must not allow the Turkish government to move in and destroy that.
It is also critically important that the Kurdish government and international relief organizations receive the desperately needed aid to handle the thousands and even tens of thousands of Iraqis who may cross into Iraqi Kurdistan at any time.
Today once again I want to appeal to our government to speak out. Its silence has been deafening. It should call on the United States and on the United Kingdom to demand that Turkey not in any way take advantage of this opportunity. It should make sure no deals have been done between the United States and Turkey to allow the United States to overfly its territory in exchange for a licence to the Turks to invade Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Kurds were betrayed once in 1991. They must not be betrayed again.