HAKKARI, Turkey
The “solution process” with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been initiated for the sake of the Turkish nation and will continue resolutely, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the Selahaddin Eyyubi Airport, also known as the Hakkari Yuksekova Airport, in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari, Erdogan said: "The solution process will continue resolutely because we did not initiate this process for the organization [PKK] or its party [HDP], but for our nation."
He highlighted the fact that the state of emergency imposed on Turkish provinces in the past to deal with the PKK threat had been lifted because of the current Turkish administration’s efforts.
"We secured the lives and freedoms of our Kurdish citizens in this country," Erdogan said, adding: "I believe our people will not surrender to the threats of this organization and its party."
He also said that the solution process had begun even before the HDP came into the parliament.
About the Selahaddin Eyyubi Airport, Erdogan said that the construction of the new airport, which began in July 2010, had been delayed for two years because of the "PKK and its party."
"Blocking the construction of the airport was a betrayal to the people of Hakkari, [but] now Hakkari is connected to the world," he added.
The Selahaddin Eyyubi Airport is expected to boost traffic to a million passengers per year; the airport tested its first flight last Thursday.
The president has slammed the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) for its alleged collaboration with the PKK several times during his recent speeches across the country.
The "solution process" began in 2013. It aims to end the decades-old conflict with the PKK, which has to date claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people in Turkey.
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