SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The International Delegation for Peace on Wednesday called for an end to Turkish attacks on the borders areas in the Kurdistan Region.
The delegation held a press conference in Sulaimani city on Wednesday, after they were prevented from holding a rally and a press conference in front of the U.N. office in Erbil.
The delegation which arrived in Sulaimani city on Tuesday said it demands Turkey halt its “occupation, demographic cleansing, instability and ethnic cleansing” in areas on the Kurdistan Region’s border.
“Stop the destruction and exploitation of Kurdistan nature,” delegation’s member Maya said in a press conference.
“All Kurdish parties, institution and people take united stance behind guerrillas’ resistance against the Turkish occupation,” she added.
She further said the Kurdistan Region should be a region “free from any occupation.”
On Saturday, a group of more than 20 people who were also members of the delegation for peace were banned by authorities at Erbil airport from entering the Kurdistan Region.
The delegation said on Sunday that it was “outraged” by the deportations of a number of international friends at Erbil airport, saying their visit was to stand against “colonization” by extend states.
It further said 40 people had either been deported or were about to be deported, and that at least 27 others were held at Germany’s Düsseldorf airport and prevented from traveling to the Kurdistan Region.
“We are not here to stand against any Kurdish parties. Quite the contrary, we want to support a dialogue between all different views. It is not about a Kurdish problem, but aggression coming from the Turkish state and Turkish military, directed at the local people and the ecosystems of the Kurdish regions,” the delegation said in a statement.
Turkey has taken its decades-old conflict with the PKK deep into the Kurdistan Region, establishing military bases and deploying armed military drones against the fighters in their mountain strongholds.
Most of the operations have focused on territory up to 30 km (20 miles) from the border.
