European Left: PKK is a partner against ISIS

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – The Kurdistan Workers’ Party must be recognized as a partner by everyone who wants peace and opposes the Islamic State (ISIS), said Pierre Laurent, head of the Party of the European Left (EL).

“All those who claim peace in the region and consider necessary to help the resistance against ISIS must recognize the PKK as a partner,” Laurent, who is also leader of the French Communist Party, told Rudaw.

At a meeting in Athens early this month EL, whose members include leftist parties across Europe, began a campaign to remove the PKK from the European Union’s terrorist list and provide economic and political support for Kobane, the Syrian town resisting an ISIS overrun for weeks.

The PKK has since 2002 been designated as a terrorist organization by the EU and the United States.  But recent events have raised its profile: in Kobane, the PKK-affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG) have been supplied with some Western weapons and backed by US-led air strikes in the war against ISIS.

The PKK fought a three-decade war in Turkey for autonomy for the country’e estimated 15 million Kurds, until a peace process announced last year by its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The Kurdish group has been accused of killing civilians in Turkey. Laurent stressed that EL has never “supported any attack on civilians,” but referred to the fact that Ocalan last year called to end the fighting.

He agued that the terrorism label hanging over the group is unjustified, “since the peace process started in Turkey.”

Some argue that removing the PKK’s name off the list would make little difference, since the Turkish government has already been negotiating with the PKK since last year, and is engaged in a peace process with it despite the EU’s terror label.

However, the terrorist labeling delegitimizes the PKK and hinders serious negotiations and strengthens those who don’t want peace, Laurent argued.

“Being on the list of terrorist organizations is not an advantage and can give arguments to those who refuse the peace process,” he said.

In order to get PKK delisted as a terrorist organization, the EL will “systematically” put the issue on the table in “each mobilization, each debate, each activity,” Laurent explained.

“In France, the French communist party decided to collect signatures of citizens by petition for example. I do believe this objective is reachable,” the group leader said.

The EL decided to include the PKK issue within a campaign for Kobane. In early November the EL sent a delegation to the Kobane border, where they visited Kurdish refugees.

Another member of EL, Nikolaj Villumsen, an MP from the Unity List in the Danish parliament and a member of the Council of Europe, said that EL could become influential and extend its appeal, referring to the fact that it consists of socialist, communist, red-green and left democrat parties from different countries.

"But we will, despite some lack of support, still argue that the PKK should not be on the terrorist list because they are fighting in the front line against ISIS,” Villumsen said.

“The terrorist designation simply weakens the fight against ISIS,” he added.

The EL has 27 full members and 11 observers. Thirty eight members of the European Parliament are affiliated with EL.