Türkİye, Politics

Erdogan: Disarmament of PKK a key step for Turkey

President Erdogan attaches importance to disarmament of outlawed PKK organization for a peaceful country

19.11.2014 - Update : 19.11.2014
Erdogan: Disarmament of PKK a key step for Turkey

ANKARA

The PKK's laying down of arms will be a key step for peace in Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.   

"What was said following the October 7-8 incidents [Kobani protests] should not be in word, but in deed," Erdogan said in a press conference before departing for Algeria to hold official talks in the North African country.

Following the protests, Kurdish political movements called for calm and unity across the country for the sake of maintaining the solution process.

Illegal demonstrations erupted in early October after the Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, issued a call, via social media, inviting its sympathizers to take to the streets as a sign of solidarity with Syria's besieged Kurdish populated town of Kobani, which in turn led to an interruption of the solution process. 

The call was followed by a week of violence that left at least 38 civilians and two police officers dead, along with scores of damaged vehicles, state buildings, political party offices and shops in Turkey.

Erdogan said that the laying down of arms by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, was the country's ideal scenario and added that officials have been monitoring the steps to be taken for the disarmament of the PKK.  

The Turkish government launched the solution process last year, aiming to secure an end to the decades-long conflict with the terrorist organization, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.

The president also touched on the parallel state structuring within the Turkish state and said this structure had connections with Pennsylvania.

This was a reference to U.S.-based Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who currently lives there.

The government has accused the Gulen movement of forming a parallel state comprised of bureaucrats with hidden agendas.

These include illegally wiretapping government officials and attempting to infiltrate the Turkish state and plotting to overthrow the government. 

When asked about an indictment on illegal wiretapping prepared by a public prosecutor which was sent to Ankara High Criminal Court on Tuesday, Erdogan said: "The indictment is now in the judicial process and we will all see the results to emerge from it."

 The court will decide within a period of 15 days whether to dismiss or accept the indictment and start hearing the case.

 

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