What did Erdogan mean by “the pace will prevail in Diyarbakir, in Iraq and in Syria “.. clarifies an expert
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu visited the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir, in northeastern Turkey, where they talked about pace and the transformation of the Diyarbakir military prison in a cultural center, known as the worst prison in the world after dozens of prisoners were killed inside, while others under torture were permanently disabled.
Soylu also felt that “the pace will prevail in Diyarbakir, in Iraq and in Syria “, during his participation with the Turkish president in the inauguration of some projects in the city of Diyarbakir, which Erdogan promised to transform his notorious prison in a “cultural center”. What are the messages that Soylu and the Turkish President wanted to convey by visiting the city with a Kurdish majority.
Haydar Çakmak, an expert on Turkish and academic international relations, denied that the Turkish president and his interior minister had had any messages in Damascus and Baghdad when Soylu spoke of “pace in Iraq and Syria “, considering that the speech of both was purely internal in preparation for winning the votes of Kurdish voters who make up the majority of Diyarbakir’s population. , in the presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in Turkey in June next year 2023.
Çakmak told Al Arabiya.net that “the visit of the Turkish president to Diyarbakir was an attempt to win the Kurdish votes he had previously lost, especially since the elections will be in several months next summer, and for this I think that Erdogan will repeat his visits to Diyarbakir in the next period . “
He added that “Erdogan’s government has been conducting military operations for months in the Kurdish region in northern Iraq and in Syria, so he and his interior minister used words to sympathize with Kurdish voters “, noting that” this is exactly what happened, and the goal was never to deliver any message to Damascus and Baghdad ” .
He added: “It was the Turkish Interior Minister who oversaw the implementation of most of the military operations against PKK fighters both in Iraq that in Syria, and Turkish intelligence was recently in able to arrest senior PKK officials and were brought in Turkey or were liquidated, which angers the nationalist Kurds, so Soylu talked about pace to tell the Kurds that we distinguish between terrorists and the Kurdish people and that the government will meet their needs ”.
The Turkish president and his interior minister paid a surprise visit to the city of Diyarbakir last Sunday when they opened several service and development projects in the predominantly Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey.
The Turkish president announced from Diyarbakir that he would transform the city prison in an “artistic and cultural monument”, during a speech in the presence of a small crowd of supporters of his party.
Erdogan said that the Ministry of Justice has completed the procedures for the evacuation of the “Diyarbakir prison”, and handed it over to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, stressing that the prison building will be transformed. in a building that includes a museum, a library and many other cultural and artistic departments.
