Kurdish insurgency cost 40,000 lives: President’s aide

ANKARA

Binali Yıldırım. AA Photo

Three decades of Kurdish insurgency has cost the lives of 40,000 people, as well as some $400 billion, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s senior aide and former minister Binali Yıldırım has said.

Speaking in a televised interview on Dec. 11, Yıldırım said Erdoğan had taken a risk that had never before been taken in the Turkish Republic’s history in order to resolve the Kurdish issue.

Stressing that the peace process is "not easy," he referred to the similar experiences of the U.K. and Spain in dealing with terrorist groups, saying their processes took more than 10 years.

The peace process should be considered "above politics," Yıldırım also said, adding that if the process becomes a part of daily politics, efforts toward its successful completion could be harmed.

Yıldırım specifically referred to the Kobane protests of Oct. 6-7 as an example of "daily politics" that badly damaged the peace process.