HDP's Ahmet Türk: Turkey is being dragged into quagmire

Duvar English

Veteran politician Ahmet Türk of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) has spoken out against Turkey's planned operation in northeastern Syria, saying it will drag the country into a quagmire.

“We're against an understanding that would drag Turkey into the quagmire of the Middle East. This understanding will appear in front of us tomorrow and will be a disaster for Turks and Kurds alike” Türk said.

Türk's statements came a day before Turkey's military began its operation into northeastern Syria on Wednesday. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to establish a safe zone alongside the border that the two countries share, but he also to eliminate the People's Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian Kurdish militia group that Turkey insists is the Syrian wing of the banned militant Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).

“We believe that the policies beingcarried out today will be a crucial blow against piece, brotherhood,and our future. For this reason, from our perspective as people witha conscience, we believe it is an important and necessary duty towarn that this current path and method is wrong, Türk said.

The longtime politician Türk was recently removed from his post as co-mayor of the southeastern province of Mardin, based on terror links that critics say are completely baseless. Even prominent ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government figures, like former Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, has said that Türk has had nothing to do with terror.