ANKARA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the Kurdish “solution process” that the country is engaged in “is not a bargaining process, nor a give-and-take process.”
“The solution process no way is to make concessions,” Erdogan said, adding that the Turkish state would never take any step that could “hurt the memories of the martyrs or wound the conscience of the veterans.”
Erdogan was speaking in the new Presidential Palace in the capital, Ankara.
“Without doubt we are not at an easy process,” Erdogan said, adding that “There are many power centers inside and outside Turkey that want to break up or slow down the solution process.”
Turkey launched what is publicly known as the "solution process" to end the decades-old conflict with the outlawed PKK, a dispute which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people over more than 30 years.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey as well as by the U.S. and the European Union.
“All their concern is ‘how can we weaken a strengthening Turkey?’ or ‘There can never can be a powerful Turkey’,” Erdogan said.
Kobani issue
The Turkish president said that no country made anything for Somalia, to help it resolve issues like famine, poverty and instability.
“When the issue is Kobani, the whole world stands up”, Erdogan said, speaking about the international cooperation shown against the Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant following its attack against Kurdish-populated Syrian city near the southern Turkish border.
“Those who flee, come to us,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey hosted the entire 200,000 population of Kobani. The president said that despite there being population in Kobani, the international coalition bombed the city.
“Ok, but who will repair the bombed places now that the Islamic State is out of Kobani?” Erdogan asked.
On Monday came different reports suggesting that most parts of Kobani, if not entire city, was free of ISIL fighters.
Approximately 90 percent of Kobani has been freed from ISIL, U.S. Central Command said on Monday.
A field commander with the Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigades, Abu Ibrahim, told The Anadolu Agency that Kobani is entirely under the control of Kurdish groups, supported by Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces and the Free Syrian Army.
The U.S. and partner nations have carried out about 1,600 air strikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria since operations began in August.
Kobani was attacked by ISIL in Sept. 2014, forcing a wave of around 200,000 Kurdish refugees to flee to Turkey.
Kurdish fighters, the Free Syrian army, Iraqi Peshmerga forces and the U.S.-led international coalition have all been battling ISIL with warplanes and weapons.
