‘No difference’ between opponents of contentious decree law and FETÖ members: Turkish PM

BURDUR

urkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım argued on Dec. 31 that there is “no difference” between opponents of a controversial recent state of emergency decree law and members of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation (FETÖ).

“We issued a law to protect our heroic citizens, who came out against those pro-coup soldiers, climbing on tanks and handing pro-coup soldiers to the police. If anyone objects to this, there is no difference between FETÖ members and those people to us,” Yıldırım said at a provincial congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the southern province of Burdur.

He stressed that there is “no need to change” the contentious decree law. Article number 121 of decree number 696 covers “those who have acted within the framework of defeating the coup attempt on July 15, 2016 and terrorist actions that followed it in its aftermath, regardless of whether they have an official title or they are fulfilling an official duty.”

“There is no problem in the legal regulation. There is no ambiguity. There is no need to fix it. The issue is about those who do not work or solve the problems of citizens,” he added.

[HH] ‘Lasting peace’ in Syria

Yıldırım also called for “permanent peace” in Syria through the establishment of a new government in Turkey’s war-torn southern neighbor.

“We have taken an initiative with Russia and Iran to end the civil war and turmoil, which has been going on in Syria for seven years,” he said.

“The next step is to achieve lasting peace. In other words, the establishment of a new government in Syria, in which all groups that have not been involved in terrorism and all ethnic groups will be included, taking territorial integrity into account,” Yıldırım added.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to U.N. officials.