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President Gül: Our revenge will be powerful

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abdullah_gulTurkish President Abdullah Gül says revenge will be ‘very great’ for attacks carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan underlines the timing of the deadly attacks that came on the day the official works on a new constitution kicked off.

Ankara has promised “immense revenge” for at least 24 soldiers killed by Kurdish militants yesterday as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called an emergency meeting with senior aides over cross-border military action to counter the escalating wave of violence.

“Those who imagine that those attacks are shaking the state and bringing it into line will see that the revenge for those attacks will be immense and multifold. Sooner or later they will understand that waging a war against the Turkish state will lead them nowhere,” President Abdullah Gül said.

“Those who might have gotten the idea that democratic progress in Turkey is gained by the way of terror are committing a great historic mistake,” he said.

Erdoğan, who scrapped a visit to Kazakhstan after news of the attacks broke in the morning, announced that the military had launched “large-scale operations in the region, including hot pursuits in northern Iraq allowed by international law.”

He put the death toll at 24 and said another 18 security personnel were wounded when militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) mounted simultaneous attacks early yesterday morning at several army and police facilities in the border province of Hakkari.

“Friends and enemies must understand that we will never bow down to any assault, either from inside or outside, that we will never step back and give away even the slightest chunk of the motherland’s soil,” Erdoğan said.

The emergency meeting, chaired by Erdoğan, included Hakan Fidan, undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization; Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay; Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin; Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz, as well as the deputy chief of general staff and the gendarmerie’s head of operations.

Fidan returned to Erdoğan’s office for more talks in the afternoon, while many ministers either canceled their programs or cut short visits abroad to return to Ankara.

The leaders issued stern warnings to those who shelter and tolerate the PKK in messages that appeared directed primarily at Kurdish-run northern Iraq.

“The Turkish state will be on the back of the neck of anyone who is openly or covertly sheltering, supporting, abetting and tolerating terror, or turning a blind eye to it,” Erdoğan told reporters after the emergency talks.

The prime minister also underlined the timing of the attack. “The treacherous attack that came on the same day as the works on a new, civilian and democratic constitution were to start will not retain us from a bright future,” said Erdoğan. “We will at the same time fight against terror and work to destroy the background it has been exploiting to get support.”

He argued that the recent escalation of PKK violence showed that “the terrorist organization is the tool of those who target Turkey’s well-being, peace and sustained development” and urged stronger international cooperation against terrorism.

Erdoğan appealed to citizens to stay calm and refrain from any retributive action.

“Those who fail to control their anger should not know that they will be helping the terrorist organization to achieve its objectives,” he said, expressing commitment to democratic reforms. “We have seen in the recent past that democracy, freedoms and human rights are the antidote to terrorism.”

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, who cut short a visit to Macedonia, said the rough mountainous terrain in the southeast made it easy for the PKK to move around and smuggle weapons. He also admitted occasional shortcomings on the part of the government.

“Sometimes we lose grip of control, fall short on intelligence and remain out of the loop. This incident is one of them,” Arınç said.

In further comments, Erdoğan issued a veiled rebuke to the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) for refusing brand the PKK as a terrorist group, charging that their calls for peace were insincere.

He also urged opposition parties to withhold any criticism of the government.

“Today we need solidarity rather than criticism, recriminations and provocations,” he said.

Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said the bloodshed would not deter Ankara from efforts to improve the southeast and announced that he would go to Hakkari next week, together with business people, to consider fresh investment, trade and employment opportunities.

Meanwhile, several dozen demonstrators who attempted to march on the prime minister’s office to protest the government for the attacks were stopped by police, who erected a barricade.

October 19, 2011
SOURCE: HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

 

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