PKK backs HDP, Turkey's president claims

ANKARA

The PKK terrorist organization is backing the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

Referring to the HDP, Erdogan told a live interview on broadcaster Kanal7-Ulke TV: “If they do not have PKK in their behind, they will not be able to come here... and they are trying to stand with the support from the terrorist organization.”

The president said he started the “solution process” to end the conflict between the terrorist organization PKK and the Turkish state, not the HDP, who he claimed undermined negotiations to end the 30-year war.

He also called for the terrorist organization PKK to lay down and bury their guns or leave Turkey.

Since the conflict was renewed, 123 members of the Turkish security forces have been martyred and 29 civilians killed by the PKK, according to the government. The Turkish military says it killed 1,196 PKK terrorists in ground and air operations between July 22 and Sept. 17.