By Xinhua
Ankara : Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that his government was in an effort to eliminate the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) that threatens the unity and integrity of Turkey.
In his televised address to the nation, Erdogan said, “we are trying to cut social, logistic, financial and psychological support of the terrorist organization as a whole,” and recalled that government authorized Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) for cross-border operations as of November 28.
Erdogan said cross-border operations only targeted on camps of the PKK terrorist organization in north of Iraq, “we have never assumed a hostile stance against the friendly Iraqi people. Turkey has always been one of the countries supporting territorial integrity, national unity, tranquility and stability of Iraq. It should be very well known that we have no other intention but to secure the life and property, unity and integrity of our nation.”
Erdogan said, “Turkish government carried out a very intensive diplomacy to eliminate terror and to explain Turkey’s rightfulness. Turkey, which has been left alone so far unfortunately, for the first time managed to find a strong support from the world in its fight against terrorism. Regional countries, the Middle East countries, the United States and the European Union (EU) started to stand by Turkey’s side in its rightful combat. We will continue to be firm to use all political, military, diplomatic, social and economic means in this process.”
The Turkish military has recently launched several cross-border attacks to fight against separatist PKK rebels, who use northern Iraq as a launch pad for attacks against Turkey.
The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.