Powerful party of nonexistent country

In the context of instability in the Middle East, the United Russia party has decided to build ties with the political parties of the region. Recently representatives of the party met the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in the State Duma. The Kurds are thought to be the most numerous peoples that have no their own state. They live in various regions of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Iraqi Kurdistan is formally a part of Iraq, but practically since 1991 it is independent from Bagdad.

For popularization of his ideas the head of the Kurd’s delegation, the head of the committee for Asian Countries affairs of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's Foreign Affairs department Abdulsalam Abdullah held the press conference in Moscow.

During his visit to Turkey the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Mr Barzani met with Mr Erdogan and supported his opinion on the necessity of struggling against the Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey. Abdullah commented on it:  “Our party supports all ethnic Kurds wherever they live. We stand for Kurds' autonomous rights in all regions they inhabit. At the same time we are a pragmatic party so we do what can be done at the moment, we believe in a solution in which all sides get what they want. The armed struggle for independence the Kurds waged, including the Kurds from the Democratic Party of Iraq, took place in specific historical conditions. We had no other choice back then. Now the situation has changed and we are convinced that Kurdish parties in Turkey can now act within the boundaries of the law. Violence begets only violence. I believe that peaceful effort will lead us to a situation in which all Kurds, no matter where they live, will get what they want.”

Speaking about Israel’s activity in the region Abdullah said: “As for the Mossad, this issue has been addressed by various parties. We believe that this rhetoric has nothing but the depreciation of our political efforts for its purpose. We are not an independent state, we are an autonomy within Iraq. If there was an Israeli Embassy in Baghdad, it could have opened a consulate in Kurdistan. So it is all nothing but an attempt to blacken the achievements of democratic Kurdistan. We still have a long way ahead of us, and all this propaganda doesn't help.”

He commented on the situation in Syria: “Our Party believes that all governments should be transparent for their peoples. It is an obligation of every country's government to assure a decent life for their peoples. They call the events in Syria an 'Arab Spring' or 'Islamic Spring'. But I believe that this is a point of transit from one type of ruling regime to another. The process of globalization is touching almost all the states in the world, instant communications via satellites and so on have rendered the 'traditional regimes' inadequate. As for the Syrian Kurds, as I've said, we support all Kurds no matter where they live.  And as for their participation in the National Council in Istanbul, we believe that Kurds should conduct a sensible policy wherever they are, in Syria or in Turkey. We should analyse the level of legality and sensibility of the Syrian opposition demands. And of course we don't want Syrian Kurds to go through the same troubles the other Kurds of the region had to go through.”

As for security in Kurdistan, Abdullah thinks that “it is tightly connected to the state of political affairs. Since 1991 we have been out of the jurisdiction of the central authorities. Of course, we condemn all terrorist activity. But in the 90s such things happened. In 2003 there was the occupation of Iraq. One can say that the level of security in Kurdistan differs from the general level of security in Iraq. I can say that our region is the safest one among all other districts of Iraq for now.”