ANKARA -  Speaking at the budget discussions at the Parliament, HDP Group Deputy Chair Meral Danış Beştaş said that Turkey is known in the international community as the biggest partner and friend of ISIS.

 

The budgets of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and their affiliates were discussed and accepted at the General Assembly. When the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told that he had spoken to Yazidi Nadia Murad who won the Nobel Peace Price in 2018, HDP Group Deputy Chair Saruhan Oluç responded to Çavuşoğlu over some tweets of Murad. Oluç said: "You told that you spoke to Nadia Murad. She tweeted on December 17, 2018 while you were speaking to her and said: "I met with Minister Çavuşoğlu to discuss the recent Turkish airstrikes on Shengal. Turkey and Iraq should work to prevent further shelling of Shengal, we want to help the Yazidis return to their homes to rebuild what ISIS had destroyed". Clearly, there is a difference between what you said you spoke to Murad and her tweets."

 

Minister Çavuşoğlu responded to HDP Deputy Feleknas Uca and claimed that they were not targeting Yazidis. Confirming HDP's Oluç and Nadia Murad's tweets, Çavuşoğlu replied, "As Nadia Murad told me to stop the operations."

 

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM SHENGAL?

 

HDP Van MP Muazzez Orhan Işık said: "Why are the theater plays and songs in Kurdish are being banned? Why are the names of places are chaned into Turkish? Why are you calling Hirabreşk 'Göbeklitepe' while the locals insists that the place is called Hirabreşk? Isn't this assimilation? When will you stop the attacks on the  language, art, history and cultural assets of the Kurds? Many Shengal civilians are killed in Turkey's drone and air strikes. What do you want from Shengal, what do you want from the Yazidis? Why aren't you on the same side with the people? Why are you siding with gangs like ISIS, FSA and Taliban?

 

'STOP SAYING 'TERROR' OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND ANSWER US'

 

Meral Danış Beştaş said: "Stop saying terror over and over again. You are speaking about 'terror' every time you can't provide us with an answer, everytime you can not find something to come up with. This is a shame. Baghdadi was killed in the border of Turkey. The whole world sees Turkey as a friend of ISIS. They are killing Kurds on your behalf. Turkey is known as the best partner and friend of ISIS in the international arena and you know that. Turkey is on the gray list as it does not hinder the movement of international financing of ISIS and Al Qaeda. That's enough for you!"

 

After the speeches, the budgets of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and their affiliates were accepted with the votes of AKP and MHP.