VIENNA
European Union countries should not discriminate among terrorist groups and take action against all, Turkey's EU Minister Volkan Bozkir has said.
Bozkir made the remarks to the media after meeting European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn at the Turkish Embassy in Vienna on Tuesday.
"Terror is terror and terrorist is a terrorist. The approach: 'the terrorist who does not harm me is better and I should fight against a terrorist who harms me' is giving wrong results," he said.
Referring to Turkey’s ongoing anti-terrorism operations, he said: "We had to launch the fight against three terrorist groups who threatened the people's life, security and continuity of the country. These are Daesh, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] and far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front [DHKP-C]".
"PKK is in the terrorist organizations list of European Union, NATO, U.S. and many countries, so we do not accept a different treatment [being given to it]," the Turkish minister said.
Bozkir said that he discussed the anti-terrorism fight with Hahn and told him that Turkey wanted the entire Western community’s support over the issue, adding that they also wanted to take joint action against terrorism.
Later, Bozkir left Vienna for Berlin.
Following the July 20 deadly suicide bombing in southeastern Suruc district that killed 32 people, there has been a surge of attacks in Turkey targeting security officers.
Turkish jets have been carrying out airstrikes on suspected PKK targets in northern Iraq, while police have been conducting anti-terrorist raids across the country to apprehend suspected militants. Since July 24, around 1,600 people have been arrested in the wave of raids.
