Turkey’s Kurds demand spending probe, end to military ops in Libya, Syria

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has called for an “immediate” end to the country’s military spending and armed presence in Libya and Syria. Party officials on Monday demanded a probe into the full cost of Turkey’s involvement in the Libyan conflict and are urging the government to concentrate its focus on dealing with mounting national debt and unemployment crises at home amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Tulay Hatimogullari, the HDP’s lawmaker from the southern province of Adana, submitted a parliamentary inquiry to Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu questioning the financial impact of Turkey’s military campaign in Libya on the national budget.

She said: “The ongoing war in Libya negatively affects people in Turkey as well. All Turkish citizens have to bear the cost of war policy that is pursued in Libya.

“Instead of spending this money for developing policies related to health, education, child, disabled, women and refugee rights, such expenses for conducting overseas war are actually the result of a conscious choice.” Hatimogullari criticized the Turkish government for not focusing on the country’s rising debts and jobless rates which had been compounded by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The presence of the Turkish army in Libya and Syria should be stopped immediately and the government should halt all overseas military expenditures to reallocate them to the immediate needs of its own citizens,” she added.