Turkish PM opens Bingöl airport, vows more investments with Kurdish peace bid

BİNGÖL

Erdoğan’s official airplane was the first to land at the airport. Turkish Airlines will start flights to the province tomorrow. AA photo

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan participated in the opening of a new airport in the eastern province of Bingöl on July 12, while promising more investments after bringing the Kurdish resolution process to a conclusion.
 
“With the effect of having this airport, more investors will come to Bingöl,” Erdoğan said, vowing to promote the region, which is one of the regions that has suffered the most from more than three decades of armed conflict. 
 
“The resolution process is continuing very successfully thanks to your benediction. We have been receiving very good news from this region for months. We are witnessing a process in which hopes are rising,” he said.
 
The process launched six months ago after the establishment of talks between the government and the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) entered a critical phase in May with the start of the withdrawal of militants from Turkish soil.
 
Erdoğan’s official airplane was the first to land at the airport. Turkish Airlines will start flights to the province tomorrow. 
 
Şırnak airport to be named after iconic Kurdish politician
 
Erdoğan also announced that an airport set to open in the southeastern province of Şırnak at the end of the month will be named after Şerafettin Elçi in tribute to the iconic Kurdish politician from the impoverished province who passed away last December.
 
Elçi, who served as public works minister at the end of the 1970s for the then-Republican People’s Party (CHP) government, had broken a taboo on the Kurdish issue when he said, “There are Kurds in Turkey and I am a Kurd.” But his words cost him his freedom as he was arrested and sentenced by the military administration after the 1980 coup.