Turkey’s anti-terror operations will continue: Erdoğan

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Feb. 17 vowed to continue Turkey’s military offensive against terrorism following the illegal PKK group’s killing of 13 Turkish citizens in northern Iraq’s Gara region.

“We will continue our struggle with determination until we crush the head of terrorism and completely solve the problem of terrorism. We will continue our operations,” Erdoğan said while addressing his party’s provincial congress.

Erdoğan also criticized the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for his comments blaming the president for the responsibility of the Gara killing.

“Mr. Kemal, have you heard the cries of those Diyarbakır mothers? You call the president responsible for 13 martyrs without shame. How irreverent are you? Impudent man!” Erdoğan said while referring to a sit-in protest held by the mothers of children abducted by the PKK.

He noted that the government was trying to rescue the abducted citizens for the past 5-6 years.

The CHP leader on Feb. 16 posed five questions to President Erdoğan and held him responsible for the incident.

“I am sending you the defense minister, the interior minister so that they can inform you. You are not worthy of these. You try to bill the president without shame,” Erdoğan stated.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu visited the CHP and İYİ (Good) Party on Feb. 16 and briefed the opposition parties on the details of the PKK’s killing of 13 Turks during the Operation Claw-Eagle 2.

Erdoğan accused the CHP of collaborating with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) while the government is fighting against terrorism.

“We came to these days not with the grants of someone, but with the struggle against DAESH to PKK and FETÖ. You should eliminate the DHKP-C members in your organization first,” he said.

Turkey on Feb. 10 said the PKK killed 13 unarmed Turkish citizens who were held hostage since 2015.

“The PKK terrorists that were caught during the operation stated that 13 detained people were martyred by firing a bullet on their heads at the beginning of the airstrike operation,” Defense Minister Akar said on Feb. 16 in his address to the parliament.