Lawmaker Altan Tan from pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) made controversial statements on recent political developments and the Kurdish question in Turkey and the wider region.
Altan Tan is known for his religious and anti-secularist discourse in Turkey.
Expressing his views on whether a Kurdish state is possible in the Middle East, Tan said: “I think it is possible. I think Turkey should try it, too. The Kurds should build an independent state in Iraq. The Kurds have had status for 26-27 years since 1991. They already have a de facto state at the moment. Kirkuk and Mosul should be included in emerging Kurdistan in Iraq. I want a state in which Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds coexist.”
Altan Tan answered the question whether the Kurds should gain status in Syria: “Any state in the Middle East has no historical root. Nor there was any state like Syria. The Westerners drew the borders with the famous Skyes-Picot agreement. The Kurds will also have a status in Syria. It can be debated that this status should not be a dictatorship. We can talk about that there should be no one-party regime, no fights between the peoples around. No one-party dictatorship but a pluralist Kurdish status should emerge in Syria. Turkey should get along well with them and provide their links to the world.”
‘KURDISH PEOPLE’S HEARTS BEAT WITH IKHWAN AND HAMAS’
Continuing with his opinions on Turkey’s role, Tan said: “The ruling power that should carry out such things has difficulty in these fields. And the opposition, for example, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu [chair of main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)]. He says that the Ikhwan [the Muslim Brotherhood] is a terrorist organisation. The Ikhwan is the history of Islam in the entire Middle East. It is the voice of the Islamic opposition in at least 20 countries. It has ever had nothing to do with terror from Sudan to Libya and Egypt. Its thousands of elements were murdered. A representative (Morsi] of it, who became the president of Egypt with 51% of votes, has been jailed for four years. Mr Kılıçdaroğlu, if you call the Ikhwan terrorist, either you do know nothing about the Middle East and the Islamic movements or you have been directed to a wrong path. The Ikhwan is a movement and party of the whole Islam world; it is a movement of 90 years. Today, the hearts of the majority of the Kurdish people beat with the Ikhwan and the Hamas, which should not be forgotten.”
TAN’S OPINIONS ECHO TURKEY’S RULING AKP’S OPINIONS
Altan Tan’s opinions echo the views of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
AKP has supported the Muslim Brotherhood particularly since the beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’. Furthermore, under the rule of President Erdoğan, Turkey has become the regional hub for the Muslim Brotherhood’s international organisation and network.
“The Ikhwan is ideological, not a terrorist organisation,” President Erdoğan previously stated, and continued, “If they are treated as terrorists, I believe that is not the right thing to do.”
While it is widely acknowledged that the Muslim Brotherhood played a major role in funding and supporting the Islamist militias in the Arab region and particularly Syria, both HDP’s Altan Tan and Turkey’s President Erdoğan claim that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a terrorist organisation but the Islamic opposition in the entire world.
Being famous with his anti-secularist and pro-sharia opinions, Altan Tan also said that the Kurds rescued Erdoğan from electoral failures especially with regard to Turkey’s recent fraudulent constitutional referendum.
