The Central Council Secretary of the PUK Adil Murad has said that the Turkish state has been seizing South Kurdistan’s petroleum income in order to change the stance of the PUK and Gorran Movement on matters relating to Western (Rojava) and Northern Kurdistan (E/SE Turkey).
The 74th meeting of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Central Council was held at the PUK political headquarters yesterday. Speaking here PUK Central Committee Secretary Adil Murad highlighted the crisis in South Kurdistan and said the on-going economic and political crisis was having a negative effect on people’s living standards and getting worse every day. “The delay in salary payments has a negative impact on all aspects of everyday life, particularly education and health,” said Murad. He also noted that the inaccuracy in petroleum income figures was the main reason behind the deterioration of the relations between Baghdad and South Kurdistan.
‘Turkey conditionally seized petroleum!’
In his speech Murad also commented on the lack of payments for petroleum and said that Turkey’s decision to seize this income belonging to South Kurdistan had deepened the on-going economic crisis. Murad noted that Turkey’s only condition for continuing the payments was that the PUK and Gorran Movement end their support for Western and Northern Kurdistan. “The Kurdistan Regional Government has failed to end the crisis, experts jointly determined by all sides of the conflict should come together and discuss solution proposals,” said Murad.
‘We cannot be silent in the face of strategic mistakes’
Stating that the people of South Kurdistan should no longer be victims of the tussle between political groups, Murad said the PUK should clarify its role in governmental institutions as soon as possible. “People’s perception that the PUK is responsible for the crisis is unacceptable for us, we cannot be silent in the face of strategic mistakes committed by a single party,” Murad noted that the PUK had made numerous warnings in order to prevent the escalation of the crisis, and had invited all parties to come together for a transparent dialogue in order to end the crisis.