Bahçeli: Kurds will not be ‘soldiers for hire’ for US or Israel
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's key ally, has criticized US and Israeli strategies in the Iran conflict while also warning Tehran to act sensibly.
Pointing to the the escalating toll of the ongoing war, Bahçeli described the situation as a product of “a Zionist-imperialist partnership of violence."
On the recent interceptions of two Iranian ballistic missiles near Turkey, Bahçeli said, “Every country must come to its senses. Turkey is not a country on which games can be played.”
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Bahçeli also criticized reported attempts to involve Iranian Kurdish groups in the conflict, saying, “Those who try to deploy our Kurdish brothers to the battlefield, those making plans to collapse Iran from within—Kurds will not and must not become mercenaries for any of them. Our Kurdish brothers are not for sale, not for rent, and not hitmen for hire.”
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Following the launch of the initial airstrikes against Iran on Feb 28, Trump had held phone conversations with Kurdish leaders. However, in a statement on Mar 8, he ruled out involving Kurdish groups in the conflict to avoid further complicating the war.
“We’re very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don’t want to make the war any more complex than it already is,” Trump said. “I don’t want the Kurds going in. I don’t want to see the Kurds get hurt, get killed."
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Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also noted in a Mar 7 phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Rubio assured him the US had no intention of collaborating with Kurds against the Iranian regime.
US-Israeli strikes on western Iran
Since the beginning of the conflict, US and Israeli forces have conducted intensive attacks on military and police targets in Iran’s Kurdish-populated western regions. Some observers interpreted these strikes as attempts to weaken state authority and pave the way for a possible armed uprising.
Meanwhile, several Iranian Kurdish movements, including Komala and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), declared their readiness to join the fight against Iran if supported by US air cover.
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Despite these statements, skepticism persists within Kurdish public opinion. Bafel Talabani, leader of the Iraq-based Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), warned after his conversation with Trump that the Kurdistan Region “should not be the tip of the spear in this war."
Such a role would cause severe harm to the Kurds and their interests, he told Fox News on Mar 6.
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Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party also voiced opposition to the conflict in a statement on Mar 1.
“It is clear that global and regional powers are not pursuing democracy or freedoms in Iran, but are instead seeking to establish a new order that no longer poses a threat to them—just as seen in other examples throughout history," it said. (VK)