ANKARA
The key to defeating the PKK lies with the people of Turkey’s southeastern provinces, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.
“If the people in the region stand against the terrorist organization… this issue will be quickly solved,” he told education officials in Ankara.
The renewal of the PPK’s terror campaign at the end of July, since when more than 100 members of the security forces have been martyred, has mainly focused on the Kurdish-majority provinces in southeast Turkey.
The resurgence of violence was sparked by a suicide bomb attack in Suruc on July 20 that killed 33 pro-Kurdish activists, ending the “solution process” officially launched in 2013 to resolve the 30-year conflict.
Erdogan added: “Those who started this conflict and ended the process are the terrorist organization and its political extension. It is the terrorist organization that will take concrete steps towards ending terror, bury [their] weapons and restoring peace to the country.”
