Turkish PM: Government to toughen measures against street violence

ANKARA

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu speaks during a meeting of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) on Oct. 13.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu vowed to take tougher measures to avoid street violence and vandalism, similar to those that claimed the lives of dozens of people last week, by empowering security forces.

“We will strengthen the state authority. We will review measures to this end at our Cabinet meeting. Afterwards no one will be able to dare to commit such vandalism,” Davutoğlu said in his address to the regional consultation meeting of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) Oct. 13.

Week-long unrest, especially in the southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey, has shaken the entire country as at least 33 people have been killed and hundreds of others have been wounded. The incidents were a reaction by Kurdish citizens against the government’s perceived inaction toward the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, currently under siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Davutoğlu did not detail what measures would be taken but in his earlier interviews over the weekend, he stressed that the Turkish security forces, the police and the gendarmerie would enjoy similar rights as their U.S. and European counterparts.   

“Whatever they do, they will not be able to weaken the state authority. The state is determined to take all measures. There will not be even tiniest negligence in doing so,” he said.

Repeating that the last week’s incidents were an effort to sabotage Turkey’s ongoing Kurdish resolution process, Davutoğlu said the government was committed to pursuing the process with determination.