MESOP NEWS SPOT : Kurdish Leader Criticizes PKK for Applying Double Standards – Mustafa Ozcelik also urges Kurdish guerrillas withdraw from Sinjar

Leyla Hemid – BasNews – 11 February 2017 – Kurdish Leader Criticizes PKK for Applying Double Standards

ERBIL— Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) should respect the wish of the Kurdistan Region official and withdraw from the Kurdish Yezidi town of Sinjar, Nineveh province, said the leader of a Kurdish party from Turkey. PKK guerrillas entered Sinjar to battle the Islamic State (IS) along the Kurdish Peshmerga forces but their moves and prolonged stay after the liberation of the town have concerned Kurdistan Region officials who have repeatedly demanded the PKK to step out of Sinjar.

During an interview with Kurdistan24 radio on Saturday, Mustafa Ozcelik also criticized the PKK for moving in two different routes.

On one side, the PKK is calling for a national Kurdish conference to unify Kurds from different parts of Kurdistan, Ozcelik said, and on the other, its Democratic Union Party (PYD) wing in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) that is hammering on the Kurdish politicians not affiliated with PKK.

Members of the Kurdish National Council of Syria (ENKS) have attributed tens of human rights violations to PYD security agencies. Ozcelik also accused the Kurdish Democratic Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of “underselling” the Kurdish issue “by introducing itself as a Kurdish party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and a Turkish party in Turkey.” Hundreds of HDP supporters from across Turkey and almost all prominent HDP lawmakers have been detained recently for suspected links to PKK, an outlawed organization by Turkey.  www.mesop.de