In a bid to resolve the country's decades-old terrorism problem, at the end of last year the Turkish government launched negotiations with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is incarcerated in prison on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara. Recently, Öcalan, who despite his 14 years in prison still wields enormous clout over PKK terrorists as well as millions of nationalist Kurds in Turkey, called on the PKK terrorists to lay down their arms and leave Turkey. Holding a press conference in the Kandil Mountains -- a PKK stronghold in northern Iraq -- on April 25, PKK armed wing chief Karayılan and several of his deputies officially declared that their members would withdraw from Turkey. Both the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) stand opposed to the settlement process.
Speaking during his party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Erdoğan stated that no father or mother experienced the grief of losing their child due to terrorism in Turkey for months, adding: “CHP and MHP, why are you disturbed by this? What makes you disturbed? Why are you filled with the desire for blood? You enjoy dying, killing or watching people getting killed very much. Give up terrorizing people on the streets. If you want this so much, you can go to the mountains and stop the terrorists and prevent them from leaving Turkey.”
Stating that the government is very determined to eliminate terrorism in Turkey, Erdoğan said the government will remain vigilant against sabotage, against potential provocations, adding: “We are very determined and enthusiastic to maintain the settlement process smoothly, to eliminate terrorist violence, and to make the spring [that started with the settlement process] permanent. I hope this process and the spring will not be damaged and terrorism will not revive in these lands [Turkish territory] again in the future.” Erdoğan also stated the winners of the process will be the whole of Turkey, but the losers will be those people filled with desire for blood or deaths.
Recalling that he attended the 22nd general assembly meeting of the Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MÜSİAD) on Saturday, Erdoğan stated that he invited the leading Turkish businessmen confederations to invest in Turkey's east and southeastern regions as people in those regions have great expectations about the process. The prime minister also stated that people who were forced to leave their villages in the east by the PKK have started to return to their homes and an increasing number of domestic tourists have been visiting the rural areas of the regions following the start of the settlement process.
