Huda-Par Party Chairman Ishak Saglam, at the new representative office in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, April 30, 2019. Photo: ILKHA/dogruhaber.com.tr
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— The Free Cause Party, Hur Dava Party (Huda Par) opened its first foreign representative office in Iraqi Kurdistan region capital city of Erbil, which is controlled by the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Party Chairman Ishak Saglam, Deputy Chairman Zekeriya Yap?c?oglu and some officials from other political parties on April 30 attended the inauguration of the foreign representative’s office in the city.
Speaking to the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency, Saglam underscored that the representative’s objective will be promoting the party’s identity and agenda and familiarizing the local people with the party, adding that he also met with Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP leader Masoud Barzani, who has good ties with Turkish government, to share their party’s mission and principles.
Huda Par, Kurdish Sunni Islamic party backed by Turkish government, is known to be the political extension of Turkish Hezbollah and has long been hostile to the Kurdish secular Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK — which has fought Turkish security forces in a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in Turkish Kurdistan (Bakur), the southeastern region of Turkey.
“Huda-Par is a newly established party yet it has a great influence in the region. However, there are a lot of negative views about our party. Our first priority is to promote our agenda, principles and mission,” he said. Saglam also pointed out that they want to open new foreign representative offices in different countries in the upcoming period.
The promotion of religion and rise of Islamist groups in Turkey Kurdistan raise suspicions and fears among some supporters of Kurdish nationalists. The nationalist movement sees the establishment of equality for women as one of its biggest achievements. Many key positions in the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party HDP are held by women, including mayors.
In 2014 and 2015, Turkey’s Diyarbakir witnessed deadly clashes between rival Islamic Kurdish group and the secular Kurdish nationalists.
The secular Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
The Huda-Par is a conservative Islamic political party that was founded in 2012.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | dailysabah.com | Agencies