PKK forcing people to migrate in southeast: PM

ANKARA

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu speaks during a convention of the Justice and Development’s (AKP) youth branch on Dec. 20, 2015. AA Photo

The objective of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) violent activities in Turkey’s east and southeast is to force locals to migrate, thereby creating unmanned areas in designated provinces, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said, vowing the government will continue its operations to clear every street and town in the region of terrorists. 

“They [the PKK] are forcing people to migrate, trying to create unmanned [regions],” Davutoğlu said in his address during a convention of the Justice and Development’s (AKP) youth branch on Dec. 20. 

Turkey has recently intensified operations in five southeastern provinces after PKK militants created physical barriers within these provinces to block both entrances and exits and hamper the movement of Turkey’s security forces. Heavy clashes between security forces and militants have particularly intensified in both Cizre and Silopi in southeastern Şırnak province near the country’s border with Syria. 

Education has been suspended in some of these provinces, where many residents have already left their homes due to growing security concerns. 

“We are facing off against a barbaric organization which is trying to build a youth whose dream is to kill and to get killed. They claim they will disallow justice, peace and rule of law through their trenches and roadblocks. They are trying to darken the life [in these provinces] with their trenches and roadblocks,” Davutoğlu said. “Everybody must be sure that this won’t continue forever. We will never allow such defiant insolence.”  

‘Necessary lessons’ will be given to HDP MPs

In a highly critical statement, Davutoğlu slammed some lawmakers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for trying to legitimize the trenches dug by the PKK in many cities in the country’s southeast. 

“A HDP lawmaker is threatening without shame those who have to leave their homes. ‘You won’t leave; when you want to return one day you may not be welcomed,’ threatened [the MP]. Here I say: Those who had to leave [their] homes will return safely,” he said. 

“These terrorist supporters in the form of lawmakers are sure to get the necessary answer,” he said. “We will give all sorts of material and moral support to our citizens who have been victimized by the terrorist organization [PKK]. We will give necessary lessons to these HDP lawmakers who support terror under parliament’s roof.”