SULAIMANIYAH, Nov 3: Iraqi authorities on Saturday closed the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Solution party, an organisation that allegedly has close ties to PKK guerrillas.
Turkey has sought the party’s closure, accusing it of being a front organisation for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which in the past month has conducted several attacks against Turkish troops inside Turkey.
Faeq Goolpie, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Solution party, told The Associated Press by telephone that the organization “has no connections with the PKK”.
“The authorities in Irbil have closed our office without an explanation. The security forces came to the office and made official lists of the materials and equipment in the office and ordered everyone to leave. No one was arrested,” Goolpie said.Security officials first shut the party’s office in Irbil, a northern Iraqi city that serves as capital to the government of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Later on Saturday, forces surrounded the party’s headquarters in Sulaimaniyah and closed down that office as well, security and party officials said.
The head of Kurdish security forces, Brig. Saif-Aldin Ali, said the KDSP offices were closed because they did not have proper licenses from the government. But he also accused the group of supporting the PKK.
“The KDSP is not licensed by the regional government and recently, this party issued a series of pro-PKK statements that fall against the interests of Kurdistan,” Ali told reporters in Sulaimaniyah. “So the Kurdish government decided to close the offices of KDSP and any other party that sympathises with the PKK.”
Goolpie said he believed it was no coincidence that the closures came while an international conference was under way in Istanbul, where Turkey and the US were pressuring Iraqi authorities to help end attacks from Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
“We condemn the decision of the Kurdistan regional government to close the party’s office. The decision was made under Turkish pressure, because our party calls for solutions to the problems of Kurds in Turkey,” Goolpie said.
At least two Kurdish regional government ministers did not immediately return phone calls for comment.—AP
