8. Plaid Cymru Debate: The Kurds in Turkey

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:42 pm on 20 March 2019.

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Photo of Mohammad Asghar Mohammad Asghar Conservative 5:42, 20 March 2019

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'm just grateful to you for letting me speak for a couple of minutes. The fact is that I've been to Kurdistan myself. I stayed in Sulaymaniyah, I stayed in Duhok and I stayed in Diyarbakir. I've travelled through Kurdistan, which is divided into four parts, partly owned by Iranians, partly owned by Syrians, partly owned by Iraqis and partly owned by Turkish. At the moment, Abdullah Öcalan—[Interruption.] Just let me speak my few words, please. You must be aware of the background of Kurdistan first. They're all Muslim. I went there in one of my Kurdish friends' company and one of the restaurants would not serve me because they thought I was an Arab, and, once they were told I was British, then, actually, they looked after me very well—Kurdish fellow. I'm very, very friendly with Kurdish people, I went with them, and three times more, and I'm friendly with Turks also. Don't underestimate that they are altogether. They are living there for centuries.

Now, you're setting up a very different precedent here. If somebody comes from any part of the world and starts going on a hunger strike—'Do this in my country otherwise I'm going to die'—what message are you going to give to the world? There are many, many other parts of the world having the same sort—[Interruption.] Wait a minute. They're having the same problems and you're giving a route for this sort of thing—'Okay, come to this country; we'll try to help you'. That is actually a problem for those people to sort out their own problems with their own communities.

Please, yes, you wanted to ask something.