Erdogan: Tourists will roam where terror once loomed

By Aynur Ekiz and Aylin Sirikli

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that "tourists will roam where terror once loomed".

Speaking at terror-weary southeastern Diyarbakir province at a campaign rally for the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, Erdogan said construction of 350 traditional stone houses had begun and they will be handed over to their rightful owners within a year.

Erdogan emphasized on the actions his government had taken to rebuild the province, including the construction of 17 hospitals, 43 health facilities, and 16,847 houses built by state-owned housing agency TOKI.

He also said Surici, a historic region of Diyarbakir which was destroyed by PKK terrorists, had been restored.

Erdogan said: “Today our whole region, including Diyarbakir, is the most peaceful since the last 40 years.

“Our government, particularly our Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, all our security forces, Turkish Armed Forces have done their best. Our village guards have joined hands and done it all. Today the state is with its people as it has never been in the past."

Erdogan went on to say: “Nobody should look for a state for the Kurds. The state of Kurds is the Republic of Turkey.”

“In the Turkey of 2018, there is no such problem as a Kurdish problem.

“The only problem we face is terror, and, thank God, we are solving that now.

"We will not allow these bloody-handed packs of murderers to live on the soil of our 780,000-kilometer nation,” he added.

Erdogan said: “June 24 [election day] will be a smack at terror barons in Qandil [northern Iraq] who knowingly send the youth of Diyarbakir to death.”

In its more than 30-year terrorist campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the death of nearly 40,000 people.

More than 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including women and children, have been killed since July 2015 alone, when the terror group resumed its armed campaign against Turkey.