PM Erdoğan responds with strong words to a deadly terrorist attack

Thirteen soldiers killed in an ambush the day before were laid to rest in a ceremony Friday as an outpouring of fury and grief swept the nation. At least seven members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were also killed in the clashes, which took place Thursday near the southeastern province of Diyarbakır’s Silvan district.

“Security forces will make them pay heavily for that,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a strong response. President Abdullah Gül and the leaders of the two main opposition parties joined the prime minister in condemning the attack. Holding an extra ordinary session, the Parliament also condemned the assault.

The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, however, claimed the attack was a consequence of the government’s failure in meeting its demands for more rights for Kurds in the country. The attack took place the same day as talks between the BDP and the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to resolve a boycott over jailed BDP deputies failed in the morning hours. In the afternoon, the Democratic Society Congress, or DTK, a Kurdish umbrella organization with alleged ties to the PKK, declared what it called “democratic autonomy” for the Southeast region.

Turkey’s top politicians condemn the terrorist attack that killed 13 soldiers and wounded seven in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. Prime Minister Erdoğan called on the PKK to lay down their arms

A Turkish flag is unfurled in the northwestern city of Bursa as people protest the deadly attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in Diyarbakır’s Silvan district.

op Turkish state officials condemned Friday a deadly ambush in Southeast Anatolia the previous day and reaffirmed that such attacks would not weaken the country’s resolute stance against terrorism.

“Our state will never bow down to intimidation, blackmail or violence. And those who resort to such ways are doomed to defeat,” President Abdullah Gül told reporters Friday.

The attack Thursday, which killed 13 soldiers and wounded seven others in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, came at a time when “the nation has started to embrace and talk to each other again. I do not think that this is a coincidence,” Gül said.

“This attack is not a coincidence regarding its timing. There are many purposes behind these terrorist acts. But our state’s fight against terrorism will never wear out,” the president added.

The terrorists and their political allies should not expect goodwill from the government, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. “The Justice and Development Party [AKP] will not bargain with them and their insincere proposals. What they did can’t make us sit down at the table with them,” he said. “If they want peace, they have to do one thing: They have to lay down their arms. If they don’t do so, the [military] operations will not stop.”

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, said the army had a lack of motivation due to the arrests of generals as part of alleged coup plots.

“A government program was announced and there as not even one single line about terror, Turkey’s basic problem,” CHP chief Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu told his party’s municipality chairmen Friday.

“The fight against terror requires motivation,” the CHP leader said, adding that the military officials were not motivated. “All of them have been arrested, or jailed. The struggle against terror is impossible without this motivation.”

When asked about this comment, Erdoğan said: “These types of remarks give support to the terror organization.”

“We will carry out the fallen soldier’s funerals with respect, but at the same time the operations will continue,” Interior Minister Idris Naim Şahin told journalists.

Şahin on Friday told CNNTürk that they would find the two soldiers and one health officer who were kidnapped by the outlawed group, even if it required a cross-border operation. The ambush occurred while soldiers were searching for the three kidnapped people.

“If you are on the side of democracy, human rights, law and humanity, then your line of conduct needs to be according to that. The BDP has failed in this regard,” said Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ.

Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, has initiated for a declaration against terrorism with other parties on behalf of the parliament. Holding an extraordinary session, the Parliament condemned the assault.


/Hurriyet Daily News/