Turkey: War to the Last Until PPK Leaves

Kurdish community activists gather for a rally outside the offices of the PKK in Paris after the execution-style assassinations of three women leaders. This took place amid peace negotiations with Turkey., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Turkey: War to last until PKK leave

Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:36PM GMT
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the Turkish Army will continue its war with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters until they withdraw abroad.

"The terror organization (the PKK) must give an end to its actions, withdraw abroad, and lay down their arms. And we will give our best support to the process," Endogen said in southern Gaziantep province on Sunday.

He added that the Turkish Army would not launch attacks against PKK fighters if they were leaving the country.

Erdogan stated that the government would not allow any kind of separatist movements to work in the country.

On January 18, US intellectual and political activist Noam Chomsky called on Turkey to end its "malignant" war with the PKK.

Chomsky made the remarks during a talk at Bosphorus University in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

"Turkey must find its place if, of course, it can heal its internal sores, and none is more malignant than the perennial Kurdish issue," Chomsky said.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region since the 1980s.

On January 9, reports said that Ankara and the PKK had reached an agreement on a peace roadmap.

"There do appear to be some real prospects with recent negotiations despite criminal efforts to disrupt them," Chomsky said, referring to the killings of three female Kurdish activists in Paris on Friday.

The body of Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK, was found at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris with multiple bullet wounds to the head. The bodies of two other female Kurdish activists, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez, were also lying beside her.

The Turkish government condemned the killings, which the French Interior Ministry described as “an assassination.”