ANKARA

Turkey’s Deputy PM Yalcin Akdogan has said the AK Party government is determined to reach an end to the solution process to bring an end to the decades-long conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

The comments came on Thursday two days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared: "There is no longer a Kurdish problem in Turkey, but our Kurdish brothers and sisters have problems." 

In an event organized by the AK Party in Ankara, Akdogan said: "Now, if there is a 68 percent support for the solution process, how this did happen?

"Did it happen because of the trust for HDP (Pro-Kurdish Party)? This (support) is a result of the trust for Tayyip Erdogan."

'Determined' government

Akdogan added: "It is a result of the trust for the AK Party. We generated this trust and that’s why people are supporting the solution process. Because of the AK Party’s determination, people support the solution process.

"We are very determined with the solution process and we are frankly trying to reach an end. Nobody should try to abuse it."

Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, claimed Erdogan’s remarks were a “political maneuver” ahead of June’s general election and alleged the Turkish president was uneasy that the solution process was making progress "in spite of him".

The solution process was launched by the Turkish government two years ago to bring an end to the decades-long conflict with the PKK.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU.  It has claimed lives of more than 40,000 people.