ISTANBUL
Turkey’s president has strongly defended police anti-terror operations which started early this morning across the country.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul on Friday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Those who stand behind terror organizations will pay the price.”
A police crackdown against Daesh, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) swept the country early Friday morning.
Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organization but talks to end the armed conflict pitting the PKK against Turkish security forces have been ongoing since early 2012.
One person was killed and almost 300 people were detained, some of them foreign nationals, during operations spanning 16 Turkish provinces.
“Daesh, the PKK and the DHKP-C; they all terrorist organizations. Our state will take every [necessary] step,” Erdogan said, adding: “The developments and structure in northern Syria make it necessary for Turkey to take different steps.”
Around 36 people have been killed in Turkey since Monday in worsening violence.
A policeman was shot dead and a colleague wounded in a gun attack in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Thursday.
The incident came after the murder of two policemen on Wednesday -- for which the PKK has claimed responsibility -- and Monday’s deadly suicide bombing in southeastern Sanliurfa province, near the Syrian border, which killed 32 people.
Referring to his discussions with Washington on Wednesday -- which finalized Turkish permission for U.S. warplanes to use Incirlik air force base to fight against Daesh -- Erdogan said: “In that conversation we confirmed our commitment to the fight against terrorist organizations alongside Daesh.”
Erdogan stressed that Friday morning’s operation by Turkish forces inside Syria was “not just another operation for tonight,” adding: “The operations will continue decisively in the future.”
