Kurdistan Report Interview With Nabi Gadery, European Representative Of The KDP-I/RL (Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran/Revolutionary Leadership)
You have participated in the opening of the Kurdistan Parliament- in-Exile in The Hague on April 12, 1995 ? What is your opinion about the Kurdistan Parliament-in-Exile ?
This parliament represents the Kurds from Turkey. No doubt it will contribute towards greater awareness of the plight of the Kurds in Europe and the rest of the world. We should not forget that Kurdish parliamentarians who are members of this parliament, were legally elected by the Kurdish people in Turkey. We expect that those parliamentarians who have already spoken for the Kurdish people in Turkey will do the same within the framework of the
Parliament-in-Exile.
Are there any representatives from the Iranian part of Kurdistan in this parliament ?
No, there are no Kurds from Iran represented in this parliament. We participated as observers in the founding session of the parliament.
Autonomy or independence for Kurds ? What, in your view, are the tasks the Parliament-in-Exile should carry out ?
Surely that is the decision of the parliament. It depends on the concrete situation to decide which steps are necessary to take. It must know and decide what solution it needs to work for, be that autonomy, federation or an independent state for the Kurdish people. Changing developments require changing decisions.
At the same time I want to emphasize that we, the Kurds, do in fact have the right to our own state. But it is important that this parliament is not determined by only one party or organisation and that it maintains its sense of reality. It must be a democratic institution, everyone must be able to express their opinions in order to jointly reach decisions.
There are voices in Europe who claim that there are terrorist organisations represented in this parliament and that the Kurds will try - in particular in Germany - to resolve the problems with "terrorist means".
There is a lot of talk about "terrorism". It always depends who uses it. I believe there is it lot of confusion on this issue. There are indeed states who act like terrorists and use dictatorial
measures in order to maintain power for a minority and to oppress the people. But they are not called terrorists, on the contrary, they enjoy diplomatic relations and they are recognised as economic partners.
I do not believe that a people fighting for its right for self-determination can be called terrorists. I do not know anyone in the Parliament-in-Exile who is a terrorist.
At the opening ceremony session you presented the President of the Parliament-in-Exile, Mr. Vanley, with a gift, what was it ?
It was a book which tells about fifty years of work of the DKP-I/RL. It reports that in our fight against oppression and dictatorship we lost 5000 peshmergas. And in 16 years of oppression by the Islamic regime in Iran we lost over 60,000 civilians.
The book records the names, biographies and photos of 1000 martyrs. With this gift to the parliament we wanted to show that the Kurdish people in its struggle for self-determination and freedom has made a lot of sacrifices. All its efforts to achieve its objectives must never be forgotten. On the first page of the book is a picture of Ghazi Mohammed who was the first President of the Republic of Kurdistan.
With our participation in the Kurdistan Parliament-in-Exile we wanted to make clear that we support all positive steps which serve the good of the Kurdish people and which will bring the Kurdish question politically and diplomatically closer to a solution. This is our basic political principle. We will express openly and freely our opinion about all the decisions of this parliament.
(Source : Kurdistan Report #22, September-October 1995)