HDP Co-Chair Temelli: Dirty Relations Between Trump, Erdoğan Exposed

Click to read the article in Turkish

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Sezai Temelli began his speech at his party's parliamentary group commemorating those who lost their lives in the Sivas Massacre on July 3, 1992: "We will make them accountable for the Alawite massacres. As long as we don't succeed in facing the massacres, it is not possible to ensure social peace. A commission for searching the truth should be formed immediately."

On President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President Donald Trump's meeting at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Japan, Temelli said Trump's words on the Syrian Kurds "exposed the dirty relations."

After the meeting, Trump said, "He was going to wipe out the Kurds, who helped us with ISIS. We took out the caliphate. We have 100 percent of the caliphate. And I called him and I asked him not to do it. They are, I guess, natural enemies of his or Turkey's. And he hasn't done it. They were lined up to go out and wipe out the people that we just defeated the ISIS caliphate with, and I said, "You can't do that." You can't do it. And he didn't do it."

"We say, 'Kurds can't be without Turks, Turks can't be without Kurds.' We will give an answer to those who see us as enemies with our will to live together. Those who view Kurds as natural enemies can't have place on the peace table," Temelli remarked.

Temelli said that they turned İstanbul mayoral election rerun into "a referendum for democracy," after the March 31 election was canceled over an appeal by the ruling AKP.

On the allegations of torture in the mostly Kurdish-populated Urfa province, Temelli said, "We remember very well that how people were tortured. An investigation has not been started yet. This government is a government of oppression." (AÖ/VK)