Interior minister: FETÖ, PKK will not be able to sway Kurds
by Daily Sabah
ISTANBULMar 23, 2017 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah
Mar 23, 2017 12:00 am
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu asserted that the actions of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and the PKK terrorist organization will not be able to divide Turkey, nor will they be able to sway Kurdish citizens in their support of the Turkish state.
Speaking in the eastern province of Van on Wednesday, the interior minister ensured that nothing will be able to sway Kurdish citizens from supporting their country.
Minister Soylu said that despite any hurdles put in the way, pointing to incidents in 2016 that include the Dec. 17-25 judicial coup attempt and the Oct. 6-7 Kobani incidents which aimed to hamper Turkey's development, Kurdish citizens would not "drift away" from the Turkish state.
The Oct. 6-7 Kobani protests had resulted in violent clashes between anti-PKK groups and PKK sympathizers after calls from members of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)to take to the streets. Around 50 people were killed in the clashes.
Soylu further asserted that despite terrorism, a failed coup attempt, and numerous economic setbacks, nothing prevailed in taking Turkey down. He emphasized that the people of Turkey will respond to these events with the "appropriate response" on April 16.
"They [the PKK] put terrorism into action but failed. They [FETÖ] attempted a coup d'état but failed. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) failed. Now who has sprung into action? Germany and the Netherlands. But regardless of whoever gets into the act...The [Turkish] people will bury you all in the ballot boxes," he asserted.
Stressing that the current parliamentary tutelage could turn one person against another, Soylu said that the country would receive the ultimate blow as a result of this, concluding that the April 16 referendum will determine that the people of Turkey are the real owners of the country.
"This [parliamentary] system is one that creates coups, instigation and turns one brother against another. It is a system that prevents the will of the people from running Turkey," he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said yesterday that "terrorists cannot break the bonds of brotherhood between different ethnic groups in Turkey."
"No one, ever, will turn us into enemies," the premier told a gathering in eastern Turkey's Iğdır province as part of the "yes" campaign for Turkey's upcoming referendum.
"All the colors of Turkey are here, in Iğdır, right now," he said.
Igdir - a province on Turkey's borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran - is one of the country's most diverse regions.
According to Yıldırım, the terrorist group the PKK could never be an authentic representative of Turkey's Kurdish community.
The proposed law grants further executive powers to the president and vice president while abolishing the post of prime minister. It also lowers the age of candidacy for parliamentarians from 25 to 18 years of age and increases the number of parliamentarians from 550 to 600, in accordance with the country's growing population.
The number of Constitutional Court members will also be decreased from 17 to 15. The same law also proposes that general elections be held every five years, rather than the current four years, with the presidential election taking place on the same day.
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