We take brave steps for terror-free Türkiye, Erdoğan says
ANKARA
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reiterated that the ruling People’s Alliance has bravely addressed the terror problem and highlighted that efforts to propagate "the virus of sectarianism" in Türkiye have been successfully thwarted.
Erdoğan delivered a speech after an iftar dinner at the Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters late on March 17, with the participation of the members of the party’s executive branches, as well as women, youth and other branches in Ankara.
“As the People’s Alliance, we have taken a brave step in solidarity through the terror-free Türkiye initiative to settle a trouble that cost Türkiye 40 years, tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of resources,” Erdoğan said.
The People’s Alliance is composed of the AKP and its main political ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), whose leader, Devlet Bahçeli, became the first official calling on jailed ringleader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, to issue a historic call on the terror organization to disband and dissolve itself.
In a statement on Feb. 27, Öcalan demanded the PKK to dissolve itself and end the armed conflict. The PKK accepted the call on March 1.
Erdoğan also stressed that the government thwarted attempts to spark new sectarian or ethnic conflicts in the country. “We have thwarted attempts to spread to our country the virus of sectarianism that eats away at our region,” he said, referring to recent incidents in the regional countries.
“We have thankfully established in our country a climate where no segment of the society is alienated due to their ethnicity or faith. We have put an end to days when the spoiled minority imposed a certain way of life on the silent majority as in the February 28 era,” he also said, referring to the military’s intervention into politics in 1997, dubbed the Feb. 28 era.
On the economy, Erdoğan stressed that the government is implementing a strict program to resolve economic problems.
“We are successfully implementing a program that will bring permanent solutions to the problems faced in the economy for some time. After spending this year in a disciplined manner as well, we will begin to take significant steps starting from next year to remedy the loss of welfare that particularly affects our citizens with fixed and lower income,” Erdoğan said.
