ANKARA
Turkey's rise will not be hampered by those who commit treason or their international supporters and our 2023 goals will be reached, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his New Year message on Wednesday.
"Sometimes the treasonous among us or our external foes would express their resentment out of our building a new, big Turkey which is a leader in its region and the world," he said in an online statement from the official website of the Turkish presidency. "We will not pay attention to those who commit treason nor bow to the dark circles that control them."
"Just as we marched fearlessly and determinedly throughout our history, we will head to the future as a powerful, honorable and influential country, an arbiter," he added.
Erdogan targeted ‘coup plots’ revealed at the end of 2013, saying that the popular presidential elections on August 10 were the best response to such initiatives against the popular will.
"Everybody has seen that Turkish governments can no longer be replaced via means other than the ballot box. Plots, conspiracies, pitfalls and immoral coup initiatives will melt into the air in the face of the popular will," he said.
The Turkish government claims that supporters of the Gulen movement have infiltrated the state and are attempting to overthrow the government.
On Dec. 14, a police operation was launched against senior media figures and police officers in 13 provinces across Turkey for allegedly being affiliated with what the government describes as the "parallel state," an alleged group of bureaucrats embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police.
More than 20 suspects were taken into custody, alleged to be linked with U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen and his so-called Gulen movement, also called Hizmet.
In December 2013, an anti-graft probe targeted several high-profile figures, including the sons of three former government ministers and leading Turkish businessmen.
The government denounced the probe as a "dirty plot" constructed by a "parallel state."
Erdogan praised Turkey's positive economic development and said the "solution process" to end Turkey's 40-year conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party had being advancing well in 2014.
"Those who try to disturb the biggest fraternity project in Turkish history and to bring back bloody conflicts have once again been disappointed," Erdogan said.
The solution process refers to the Turkish government’s efforts to secure an end to the decades-long conflict with the PKK, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.
Turkey, the U.S. and the EU list the PKK as a terrorist organization.
"Turkey will not bow to any threat or blackmail, especially regarding the solution process. Those who depend on street protests, conflicts, blood and tears to carry out their politics will get the proper answer through democracy and law," the Turkish president said.
In late October, pro-Kurdish protesters took to streets across the country under the pretext that the Turkish government was allegedly doing nothing to halt the advance of extremists pouring into the Turkish-Syrian border town of Kobani. Dozens of people were killed in the street protests.
"One of the most heartbreaking developments of 2014 was certainly the killing of youngsters in the vicious attacks during Eid al-Adha," Erdogan said. "I remember those youngsters, especially Yasin Boru, with gratitude."
On Oct. 5, the slain youngsters were chased down and brutally killed on the second day of Eid al-Adha as they distributed food aid to Syrian refugees.
Attackers, reportedly armed with machetes and guns, killed and mutilated the bodies of Yasin Boru, 16, Hakan Gokgoz, 26, Huseyin Dakak, 19, and Riyad Gunes, 28.
www.aa.com.tr/en
