HDP keeps on with PKK support: Erdoğan

ANKARA

AA Photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he started the settlement process to end the three-decade-old Kurdish insurgency, but it was the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that ended the process. 

Speaking in a televised interview on Sept. 22, Erdoğan said the PKK was backing the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The president elaborated his earlier remarks asking for 550 “local and national” lawmakers. 

While he did not identify ethnicity, he said his comments indicated lawmakers who would be bound to the country “with belonging.” These lawmakers would be willing to serve all people of the country, Erdoğan added. 

The president said some 1,300 PKK members were killed during military operations. 

‘I have bond of communion with AKP’

Elaborating on claims of his direct involvement in the candidate lists of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the Nov. 1 election, Erdoğan said he was not legally bonded, but was rather bonded by communion.

“It’s not true that there is an understanding that the president draws up the candidate lists. It would be disrespectful to both the chairman of the party and his team,” he stated. 

Erdoğan:  Israel plays with fire

Erdoğan warned Israel of “playing with fire” as they “breach” the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Israel aims to make division in its actions regarding Al-Aqsa Mosque, but it will not be able to realize this division, the president stated.

“We, Turkey being in the first place, are in solidarity against Israel taking steps about Al-Aqsa,” he added.