02 December 2017•Update: 03 December 2017
KARS, Turkey
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a hundred terrorists were 'neutralized' in operations against the PKK terrorist group across Turkey last week.
Addressing a crowd in Turkey's northeast Kars province, Erdogan said: "If they [PKK] continue their efforts on dividing this country, those hundred will be 200, 300, 1,000."
"Nobody should think that they can harm our territorial integrity," Erdogan said. "They should know that we will continue to bomb them with F-16 jets, like we did it on Mount Cudi, Mount Tendurek and Mount Qandil," referrring to ongoing security operations in eastern and southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, respectively.
The PKK -- recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU -- has taken thousands of lives in decades of attacks in Turkey, including 1,200 since July 2015 alone when it resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish state.
Later, Erdogan attended a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s ordinary congress.
Speaking at the meeting, Erdogan once again dismissed the allegations against him and his relatives made by country’s main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Last Tuesday, Kilicdaroglu, in a speech to party lawmakers, presented documents he alleged were evidence of his claims that relatives of the president had money abroad.
"There is no money that was sent abroad. These are some receipts of a [money] transfer between Halkbank and Al Baraka [banks in Turkey]. But they are fake," Erdogan said.
In a separate public address in the neighboring province of Igdir, Erdogan said Kilicdaroglu was a "case of psychiatry, not politics”.
"What is it called?’, I asked a psychiatrist friend of mine, who said, 'This is mythomania'. This is a psychiatric issue. What does mythomania mean? Let me explain. It is compulsive lying."
The AK Party has accused Kilicdaroglu of telling "lies", calling on him to present the documents in court to prove the claims.
Erdogan has vowed to resign if the allegations are proved.
Reporting by Baris Gundogan and Ilkay Guder; Writing by Satuk Bugra Kutlugun, Cansu Dikme
