PKK should bury arms, ceasefire not enough: Erdoğan

ANKARA

HÜRRİYET photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) should bury their arms rather than simply put them down, as the Kurdish peace process is already in stalemate.

“Arms should be buried rather than dropped until terrorist organizations that brandish weapons against our people no longer pose threat to our country,” Erdoğan said during a ceremony held to honor the incumbent chief of the General Staff Necdet Özel on Aug. 11. He also asserted that the Kurdish peace process was frozen.
 
“They [the PKK] did not understand the [Kurdish] peace process. So, it is now frozen. The party that is the political extension of the terrorist organization could not turn the peace process into an opportunity to solve problems in a political manner,” said Erdoğan, as he accused the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of having indirect ties with the PKK.

The Kurdish peace process, which had been ongoing for more than two years, has come to a halt after multiple deadly attacks by PKK members on Turkish security forces, which killed more than 30 police officers and soldiers over the past month, and the Turkish army’s airstrikes on PKK base camps in northern Iraq. 

Speaking at the State Medal of Honor Ceremony for the outgoing Özel, Erdoğan expressed his gratitude for Özel’s four years of service and his contributions to the Turkish Armed Forces.