KCK enslaves Kurds, Minister Şahin says

Turkey’s interior minister has described the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the alleged urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as “a movement to forcibly enslave the Kurds,” while asserting that the Kurds no longer have a major problem.

“The Kurdish people have never been separatist. The separatist organization has nothing to do with the values of the Kurdish people. The Kurdish people have no problem basically,” Minister İdris Naim Şahin said during a visit to the northern city of Ordu late Monday.

Referring to the PKK and its supporters, Şahin said: “What do they want? Investment? There is plenty. Freedom? It is limitless. They have as much freedom as to be able to work for dividing the country they want to divide.”

The minister said mayors of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in the southeast acted in line with KCK orders and impeded government efforts to improve infrastructure in the region.

“I’m touring the region and what I see is a construction site, an area in development. There is one deficiency – the dirt left around by the [BDP] municipalities, elected with votes cast forcibly by people under pressure,” he said.

Şahin said PKK militants included not only Kurds but also members of other ethnic groups from neighboring countries, whose common value was atheism.

“Impiety is their common bond, be they of Kurdish or Armenian origin, be they Iranians or Iraqis,” he said. “My devout Kurdish brothers, who are loyal to their faith, have now comprehended this structure.”