Turkish PM urges calm amid rising tension

ANKARA

AP photo

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu urged for calm amid rising tension across Turkey, in a series of tweets posted on Sept. 8. 

Davutoğlu said military operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) would continue “with determination,” but people should not take matters into their own hands. 

“We will not allow brothers to fight each other,” he tweeted, calling on citizens to be “calm and have confidence in the state.”

Recalling a wave of violent protests that has shaken Turkey, including one that targeted daily Hürriyet, Davutoğlu condemned the damage inflicted on newspapers and political party headquarters as “unacceptable.” 

“Damaging the property of our citizens, particularly that of our media outlets, political party headquarters and civilians, cannot be accepted … No-one should put themselves above the law,” he said. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also urged calm in messages posted on his official Twitter account on Sept. 8.

“I request that our citizens keep calm during the fight against the terror. We should fulfill our responsibilities as citizens by not paying attention to provocations,” Erdoğan wrote.