Erdoğan vows Fight Against Terrorism Will Continue

“We will not allow our youth to disappear under the savage fangs of terrorism for any reason,” Erdoğan said during an event in the capital Ankara on Jan. 27.

The president said the end is "near for terror barons that forcefully taking young people to the mountains."

“Our fight against the terrorist organization that has been sucking the blood of our country and our people for 40 years continues,” Erdoğan said. “We are approaching our goal of a terror-free Turkey step by step. We will fight off the trouble that the imperialists have brought upon us and build our bright future together.”

Erdoğan emphasized unity, calling for a future where all citizens, whether Turks, Kurds or Arabs, prosper together.

“Even if others try to separate and divide us, we will strive to bring the youth of this country together,” he said. “We will continue to serve this country and this nation selflessly.”

Erdoğan's remarks came amid rare talks between jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and a delegation from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).

The group, consisting of lawmakers Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan, visited Öcalan on Jan. 22 for the second time in less than a month.

"We are not pursuing raw dreams, but the great goals we have been longing for centuries," Erdoğan said. "We manage the processes guided by a thousand-year heritage and a century-old vision."

The initial talks with the PKK leader, serving a life sentence on the İmralı prison island off Istanbul, were the first since members of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party’s predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), met with him in April 2015.

It became possible after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli invited Öcalan to come to the parliament to renounce terror and disband PKK. Erdoğan, his ally, backed the appeal as a "historic window of opportunity."

After the delegation returned from İmralı, a DEM Party statement said Öcalan was "ready to make a call" to back a new initiative by the Turkish government to end decades of conflict.

PKK is listed as a terror group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Source: HDN