Turkish PM slams HDP deputy over ‘guerilla’ remark

STRASBOURG

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Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has harshly reacted to a Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy’s question on ongoing clashes between the Turkish Armed Forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), after the latter called the militants “guerillas.”

HDP deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü had asked Davutoğlu whether the government “foresees any mechanism other than war to solve the Kurdish issue and clashes in Syria,” referring to the PKK militants as “guerilla.” 

Speaking at a plenary session of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Davutoğlu said the PKK could only be described as a “vile terrorist organization.” 

“If Mr. Kürkçü had lived in Cizre or Silopi, if his children had gone to school through mine-ridden streets, if one of his relatives worked at hospitals in Cizre or Silopi where 10 terrorists fired rockets, or if one of his relatives was among those whose lives were taken while walking in Kızılay, he would not say ‘guerilla’ but rather vile terrorist organization,” he said.

The prime minister added that it was his “responsibility to fight terror until every Turkish citizen feels safe.”