President, PM issue harsh warnings against terror after deadly attack

ANKARA

President Gül says those responsible for grievances will eventually pay for it. AA Photo

Turkish leaders were in unison condemning terrorism yesterday, with President Abdullah Gül pledging that those responsible for these grievances would eventually pay for it.

“The separatist terrorist organization - which up to today has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people without making a distinction whether they are children or old, soldier or civilian - is involved in a dreadful game. The domestic and foreign supporters of this faithless game will also sooner or later understand that they are in the wrong and will serve the sentence for this,” Gül said in a written statement.

“We will not let the murderers reach their target,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also said in a statement. “We will not fall into the trap of those traitors who aim at setting us against each other and at driving us to hatred.” Erdoğan was set to receive Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel when the Daily News went to print on Monday evening

Members of the PKK, armed with rifles and grenade launchers carried out several attacks on Turkish forces near the southeastern border with Syria and Iraq overnight, killing 10 security personnel, security sources said yesterday. “Those who assume today that an opportunity has been born for them will eventually see their big historical slip-up and will be disappointed. Those who give our nation this grave grief will certainly pay for it,” Gül said.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ, the PKK has felt trapped after not being able to fulfill its goals, and thus considers 2012 to be “the final year.” The recent attacks are proof that the terrorist organization has lately been in a major depression, and within this framework it is trying to take steps to change the agenda of the country, Bozdağ told the private NTV news television channel on Monday.

BDP ‘shares grief’

As for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), on Monday its deputy chair and spokesperson Haluk Koç chose to criticize the government and its policies. Koç, speaking at a press conference at the CHP headquarters, said he did not any longer want to hear the “nonsense and tedious” statements that are delivered by the authorities upon each and every terrorist attack.
“At this moment, from now on, it is meaningless to look for the responsible one for the failure.
Government authorities and the prime minister should not anymore mock public opinion following their 10-year-long governance, and should not force the limit of tolerance of the nation,” he said.

Speaking in Diyarbakır, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said nobody should remain silent vis-à-vis the deaths of people. “We share the grief of everybody. Everybody should derive a lesson from the grievances that have been experienced and approach the issue as far as one’s conscience and morality is concerned,” Demirtaş said in response to questions from reporters about the Beytüşşebap attack after he offered his condolences to families of those killed in the attack. He also highlighted that the political environment has been gripped with a mental eclipse in regards to taking a clear stance against war.