Erdoğan slams 'world’s silence' over terror attacks

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed the international community’s insufficient reaction against the deadly terror attacks that killed civilians, including women and children, reiterating Ankara’s determination in clearing northern Syria from the PKK/YPG terrorists.

“There are two female teachers and three children out of our eight citizens who lost their lives in recent attacks by terror organizations. If terrorists would have massacred teachers and children in another corner of the world, the reactions would go on nonstop for days, weeks and months,” President Erdoğan told at the event on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Istanbul on Nov. 25.

“But when it happens in Türkiye, apart from symbolic condemnations, no strong reaction is coming from the politicians, civil society and media. Where are the non-governmental organizations of the world?”

Türkiye has been suffering from increasing terror attacks in the past two weeks. A PKK/YPG terrorist blasted a bomb in downtown Istanbul and killed six people, including children. The Turkish military launched a massive aerial campaign against the PKK/YPG positions in northern Iraq and Syria and killed at least 326 terrorists. The YPH later launched missile attacks from northern Syria against the residential areas in the border towns of Türkiye, killing a teacher and a 5-year-old boy.

Some NGOs do not hesitate to pay visits to the PKK headquarters in northern Iraq but they never visit the Diyarbakır Mothers whose kids have either been kidnapped or persuaded by the PKK to join the terrorist organization. “Have you seen any of those NGOs visiting Diyarbakır Mothers?” Erdoğan asked.

Türkiye may not stand idle against the terror organization that kills women and deceives young girls to join the PKK, Erdoğan said. “Likewise, we cannot ignore the associate of this organization at the parliament. They have no words to say on behalf of democracy. We know perfectly who is who and who is doing what.”

The president referred to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which has 57 deputies in the 600-seat Turkish parliament. The HDP is indicted for having links to the terror organization by the chief prosecutor, who seeks the closure of the political party. The case is ongoing at the Constitutional Court.

2023 polls of great importance

“If we don’t put our hands on these murderers of women and children, it would mean that we don’t fulfill our most basic humanitarian duty, let alone the responsibility of governing the country,” Erdoğan stated. He underlined that those parliamentarians who are hand in hand with the terrorists cannot be counted as the representatives of the people.

“That’s why I attach great importance to 2023 elections,” Erdoğan said, expressing his hope that the society, with all its ethnic groups, will give the best democratic response to them in the polls. Türkiye will hold simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections in June 2023. Erdoğan will seek another term as the president.

Erdoğan slams US over YPG support

Later in the day, Erdoğan attended the launching ceremony for the ship Türkiye built for Pakistan under the Pakistan MILGEM Project in Istanbul with the participation of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Stressing that Türkiye has been fighting against the separatist terror organization for the past 40 years, Erdoğan said, “Türkiye is determined to continue its strategy to eliminate terror at its source.”

Indirectly criticizing the United States for its continued military and political support to the YPG in northern Syria, the president urged the U.S. to make its calculations in accordance with the fact that Türkiye will continue its fight against the terrorist organization and not call it to show restraint.

“No anybody can lecture us, the only NATO country that fought against the DAESH in the field, on this [fight against terror]. Those who come [to this region] from tens of thousands of kilometers away when they face the smallest attack should not expect tolerance from us against terror organizations right across our borders,” Erdoğan stated. “Those who equip the terrorists with weapons under the pretext of fighting the DAESH cannot give us a lesson.”

Repeating his government’s determination in ending the terrorist threat against Türkiye and the Turkish people, Erdoğan repeated that the Turkish army will soon launch a new effort to create a security corridor through the Turkish-Syrian border.

Türkiye had conducted four separate cross-border operations into northern Syria against the presence of the YPG and ISIL in the period of 2016-2019 and controls around two-thirds of the 877 kilometers-long border.