ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The British parliament on Tuesday debated the UK’s listing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization and called for action on Ankara’s policies towards its Kurdish population and opposition voices. “The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization at the behest of the Turkish Government without further checks and safeguards. The system to list terrorist organizations is archaic,” said Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle during the debate, calling for a review of how organizations are added to the terror list. The UK added the PKK to its terror list in 2001, describing it as “primarily a separatist movement that seeks an independent Kurdish state in southeast Turkey.” The PKK is also listed in the United States, the European Union, as well as Turkey. The PKK, founded in 1978, entered peace talks with Ankara in 2013, but they broke down two years later, after which Turkey began intense military operations against the PKK both within Turkey and across the border in the Kurdistan Region where the PKK has its headquarters. Its most recent offensives began in April in the northern border areas of the Kurdistan Region. The conflict in the Kurdistan Region has led to the deaths and injuries of scores of civilians and the abandonment of hundreds of villages. “Turkey is plainly not trying to find a route to peace with the PKK. They are designated because Turkey asked for them to be. This is not proper,” said Conservative MP Crispin blunt, adding it is time for the UK to review its relationship with Turkey. The debate was based on a report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kurdistan in issued in June, which called on the government to "rethink" its relations with Turkey and its definition of the PKK as a terrorist organization. In 2020, a Belgian court ruled that the PKK was not a terror organization. “Considering the outcome of the case at the Belgian Supreme Court which found that the PKK were a legitimate combatant in a civil war, rather than a terror organization, this historic ruling must have significant ramifications for our own government’s position, and I call on the government to review the listing of the PKK as a terror organization in light of this evidence,” Kim Johnson, a Labour MP, said during the parliament session. Conservative MP Amanda Milling disagreed, noting that Turkey is a NATO ally and they work closely together. "We have shared interests in defence, trade, regional stability. We don’t share the view there are grounds to un-prescribe the PKK as a terrorist organization," she said. Ankara considers the PKK an existential threat, blaming it for more than 40,000 deaths, and regularly slams perceived support for the group. When a Lebanese daily published an interview with senior PKK leader Cemil Bayik this week, Turkey’s ambassador to Beirut Ali Baris Ulusoy called the paper a “mouthpiece of a terrorist organization.” Ankara has not immediately reacted to the UK parliament debate. British MPs also discussed Turkey’s policies towards its Kurdish population. “Hundreds of Kurdish activists, journalists, MPs and mayors have been arrested. The arrests of activists and journalists is particularly concerning in the ability for Turkey to maintain freedom of speech. When MPs are arrested, they are often subject to human rights abuses but in addition have their parliamentary immunity stripped,” said Russell-Moyle. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has been under pressure for years, accused of being the political wing of the PKK, a charge the party denies. Members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have called for the party's closure. Many HDP mayors have been removed from their elected positions and replaced by pro-government officials, and jail sentences have been upheld for their MPs. Labour MP Feryal Clark, a Kurd who was born in Turkey, spoke of her personal experiences. “My own parents were forced to flee violent repression. When I was growing up, it was illegal to speak or learn Kurdish, and the Turkish government still uses various means to prevent this happening. It’s shameful,” she said. The Kurdish language has been silenced in modern Turkey since its foundation in 1923, due to the assimilation policies of successive governments. A 2019 study showed that only a small size of Turkey’s Kurdish population can speak their mother tongue. Kurdish political parties and language promotion institutions launched a campaign in June, calling on the Turkish government to recognize Kurdish as an official language in the country.
