Turkish party leader calls on Kurds to turn their back on PKK

ANKARA

The head of a major political party encouraged citizens of Kurdish origin on Tuesday to turn their backs on the PKK terror group.

"Smack these terrorists. Show your historical power identified with the love of the nation against the domestic and foreign focal points which want to destroy our unity and peace," Devlet Bahceli of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) told his party's parliamentary group.

He noted that Turks love citizens of Kurdish origin "for the sake of Allah."

"There is no difference between us, our faith is common, our will is common, our future is common, our past is common, our flag is common, our state is common, our nation is common, our sacredness is common, our pain is common, our memory is common," said Bahceli.

"If someone is dreaming of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, it will be a matter of life and death for us to wake them up from this dream with a nightmare," he noted.

The PKK terror group often hides in northern Iraq, just across Turkey's southern border, to plot terror attacks in Turkey.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.