Erdoğan: Goal is a 'terrorism-free' Türkiye

RİZE

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reiterated his administration’s commitment to eliminating terrorism in Türkiye.

“We have a unique opportunity in front of us to make a note in history together. Our goal is a terrorism-free Türkiye. The result of the steps we take will be for the good of the nation,” Erdoğan said at an event in the northern city of Rize on Jan. 5.

His remarks followed a rare meeting between the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed PKK leader serving life on a prison island off Istanbul.

The pro-Kurdish DEM Party's predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), last met Öcalan in April 2015.

The visit became possible after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli invited Öcalan to come to parliament to renounce terror and disband PKK. Erdoğan, his ally, backed the appeal as a "historic window of opportunity."

"We are a party whose destiny is united with the destiny of its country. The more productive the [ruling] People's Alliance is, the easier it will be for Türkiye to achieve all its goals," Erdoğan said in Rize.

"In politics, we should serve our cause, which is the truth, not anyone else. We should do this not with the expectation of any benefit, but with the awareness of the responsibility that our cause imposes on us."

The event in Rize was part of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) ongoing congress process. Preparations since Sept. 3 included youth and women’s branch congresses ahead of the main event.

Neighborhood, town and district congresses concluded by early December, paving the way for provincial congresses.

The gatherings in major cities, including Ankara and Istanbul, are likely to include changes in key staff positions, media reports have said.

“We will open the door to a new era. Our goal is to raise our party to 50 percent [voter support]," Erdoğan said.

"If we do not remind the works we have brought to every inch of the country, incompetent individuals will come and try to sell works that are not one millionth of them as great achievements."

Erdoğan also criticized the use of public resources for personal or political gain.

"Some transfer the nation's resources to terrorist organizations, some squander them, some distribute them around and some use them for their political career. This is betrayal of the nation,” he said.

'Daesh/ISIL, literally defeated by Türkiye, tried to be relaunched'

Erdoğan said that the country “literally defeated” the Daesh/ISIL terror group, which was “recently attempted to be relaunched as an apparatus for regional plans.”

Türkiye has achieved a “significant success in the strategy of decisively eliminating terrorism at its source,” Erdoğan said on Jan. 5 at another event held as part of AKP's ongoing congress process in the neighboring province of Trabzon.

He said Türkiye has removed the PKK terror group’s extension from the country’s border, referring to the YPG/PKK terror group, thanks to counterterrorism operations Ankara conducted.

"We will undoubtedly achieve our goal of a terror-free Türkiye, where conflict, violence, and instability are completely a thing of the past, through unity and solidarity,” he reiterated.

“The era of relying on weapons, violence, terrorism, and playing the game of canton dreams backed by imperialists has now completely come to an end,” he further said.

"We will not allow new walls to be erected between us and our brothers and sisters with whom we have shared the same land and lived side by side for a thousand years," Erdoğan added.

The AKP last held an extraordinary congress in October 2023, during which Erdoğan was reelected as the party's leader.

It also saw a significant reshuffle in the AKP's central decision-making body, with 49 members losing their positions and 26 incumbents retaining theirs.