30 October 2015•Update: 31 October 2015
ANKARA
The majority of Turkish people living in southeastern provinces back the military’s air-and-ground operations against the PKK terrorist organization in Turkey and northern Iraq, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said on Friday.
In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency Editors' Desk in Ankara, Akdogan blamed the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for the failure of the “solution process” – referring to the early 2013 government initiative that was aimed at ending the decades-long conflict with the PKK-- and added that the HDP had disappointed its own voters in the June 7 parliamentary elections.
“The people who supported the solution process and voted for the HDP are now disappointed with the HDP,” he said.
The deputy prime minister also pointed out the waning support for the PKK terrorist group.
“Citizens rightly show their reaction against them. Currently, people do not respond to PKK’s calls, while the public support for Turkish state’s [security] operations [against PKK] is at around 70 percent,” he said.
The Turkish military began its operations against the PKK terrorist organization in Turkey and northern Iraq in late July following a two-and-a-half year long cease-fire.
The deputy premier also said that local support for Turkey's operations against the terrorist organization was because normal lives of civilians had been crippled.
“[PKK] detonates bombs when children go to school. Traders are told to close their shops up [by force]… People are forced to give tributes,” he said.
Referring to the upcoming election in Turkey on November 1, he said that the ongoing military action had nothing to do with the polls.
“These operations are not related with the election. The Turkish state’s attack will continue until ‘terrorism’ is wiped out,” he said.
Turkey has been hit by a wave of attacks since the Suruc bombing on July 20. Since then, the PKK -- which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the U.S. -- renewed its armed attacks mostly in the country's eastern and southeastern regions, which resulted in the derailment of the solution process.
PKK was one of the groups blamed for the Oct. 10 Ankara bombings at a peace rally that killed 102 people. The July 20 bombing in Suruc that killed 33 people was blamed on Daesh.
Turkey faces a general election re-run on Nov. 1, while counter-terrorism operations continue in the southeast and an ongoing civil war rages on along its southern border in Syria.
