Cross-border anti-terror operations are Turkey’s legitimate right: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Turkey’s counter-terror operations within and across its borders are the country’s legitimate right as well as “humanitarian missions,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 24, emphasizing that Ankara would continue these military operations.

“Terrorist operations conducted in and outside Turkey’s borders is a legitimate right,” Erdoğan said while addressing his party members at the parliament.

Ankara will not ask for approval from foreign actors to fulfill the “mission of brotherhood and friendship” imposed on the government by Turkey’s “thousand-year existence in its geography,” he stressed.

“We will not stop until we secure all our borders deep enough,” the president said, referring to Turkey’s cross-border military operations.

He also said that all countries should back Turkey’s fight against terrorism.

“We call on everyone who has principles and honor to back Turkey’s legitimate fight and approach on terrorism,” Erdoğan stated.

But countries who qualify this fight with words such as “but” or “however” are making “a critical mistake,” he added.

Turkey has long been warning the Western countries for dealing with terrorist organizations, he noted.

“If you don’t put out the fire of terror where you see it, one day it will surely spread toward you… Despite this, the same mistakes are still being repeated. Here we are all watching the fate of those who do not listen to us,” he said.

“We don’t even want to think about the future of these countries, whose streets are covered with fire and blood, whose parliaments are occupied, and who are shaken by racism and Islamophobia,” he said.

“Countries which prefer to cooperate with bloody-minded terrorists rather than Turkey, one of the oldest states in the world, will get lost in a black hole unless they change their mentalities,” Erdoğan stated.

Erdoğan also harshly criticized the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) over the killing of 13 Turkish nationals by the illegal PKK group in a cave in northern Iraq’s Gara region.

Recalling that these 13 people were abducted five to six years ago, Erdoğan said: “In these five-six years, we searched all these places with our security forces. They are so irreverent to say ‘they are safe’ without shame. Who are they? CHP and its partner HDP. They ran this ruse together. We had to perform the operation five-six years later.”

“Even the painful incident that happened to 13 unarmed innocent people, who were executed publicly in a cave in the north of Iraq, was not enough to embarrass the dirty mind. They are so shameless that it turns out, they are even trying to blame me right now,” the president said.

“They behave so viciously that they tried to blame us for this massacre,” Erdoğan added.

The People’s Alliance of the AKP and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will “continue on this path with faith to finish off those terrorists you have taken under your wings,” the president stated.