ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--An official from the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) announced Thursday that they are against agreements between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey to export natural gas to Turkey since it would bolster Turkey's economy. "They want to use the natural resources of Kurdistan as a source of life for the Justice and Development Party (AKP)," said Demhat Agid, a spokesperson for the KCK, referring to the KRG-Turkey energy deal. The KCK is an organization founded by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to put into practice the political ideology of jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan. Agid stressed that, "They want to misuse the underground and natural resources for themselves." He continued: "Turkey is committing massacres in northern Kurdistan [southeastern Turkey] and is tightening the siege of western Kurdistan [Rojava]." Therefore, he reiterated, "We will not accept such an agreement to bolster Turkey and to let it stand on its feet since this agreement is a conspiracy putting the lives of the Kurdish nation at risk." Neither party "can witness the resistance of the Kurds in northern Kurdistan and pretend that nothing is happening," he added, claiming, "This agreement will not be to the benefit of our national unity." Agid believes that a rare opportunity for the Kurds "in northern and western Kurdistan has presented itself. In the north self-autonomy has been declared and we will increase our guerrilla movements in the spring." In the past, PKK-linked groups have sabotaged pipelines carrying crude oil from the Kurdistan region’s oilfields to Turkey. Crude oil exports from the Kurdistan Region to Ceyhan, Turkey has been interrupted since Tuesday following attacks on the pipeline near Urfa in Turkey. No group has claimed responsibility yet. Such attacks directly damage the welfare of the people of the Kurdistan region and harm the KRG’s ability to pay its Peshmerga and fund the fight against ISIS, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). “The MNR condemns the theft attempts and the perpetrators of this sabotage inside Turkey. We call for better controls to immediately stop their actions, which cause harm to our people in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said the MNR in a statement. A PKK sabotage operation against a Kurdistan region oil pipeline in Turkey temporarily halted oil export to Turkey in mid-August 2015. It cost the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) around $250 million in lost revenue and wasted crude oil, according to a statement by the MNR after the sabotage took place. Natural resource experts see a Turkey-Kurdistan agreement on natural resources as a means for the KRG out of the economic crisis it has been suffering over the past two years.
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