ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Ankara’s Public Prosecutor launched on Sunday an investigation against a Kurdish lawmaker for endorsing a stamp commemorating Pope Francis’ visit to the Kurdistan Region, which has angered Turkey and Iran over its inclusion of greater Kurdistan in its design.
An investigation has been launched into Berdan Ozturk, an MP for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) for “making propaganda” for a terrorist organisation based on comments he made to Rudaw on Friday over the stamp, which features a map of greater Kurdistan – including Kurdish areas in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, divided between the countries in 1916.
Such an accusation is mostly used against Kurds in Turkey for their alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is regarded as a terrorist organization by Ankara.
“The name of the land we have been living on for a long time is Kurdistan. This is nothing new or something that has been recently discovered….. the map which was presented to the pope is a symbol of Kurdistan and Mesopotamia’s geography,” Ozturk told Rudaw.
The Turkish government’s opposition to the stamp revealed that they are the “enemies” of Kurds not only in Turkey but “everywhere else", he added.
The HDP itself has neither slammed the stamp nor endorsed it, with its parliamentary deputy head Meral Denis Bestas saying questions on the stamp must be directed to Kurdistan Region leaders, not the party.
The pope visited both Iraq and Kurdistan Region in early March, holding Mass in Erbil’s Franso Hariri stadium on March 7. The KRG released six stamps to mark the visit, but one stamp in particular has caused controversy.
The inclusion of greater Kurdistan in the stamp angered both Tehran and Ankara, as well as many Turkish political parties. However, KRG officials later said that the designs had not been finalized.
The head of KRG's Department of Foreign Relations Safeen Dizayee later said that Erbil respects the sovereignty of neighbouring countries.
