Erdogan gives PKK ultimatum, surrender or be "neutralized"
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Monday that he will not have any further peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), saying that they either have to surrender to the state and lay down their arms or be "neutralized."
He made these remarks while giving a speech in the Turkish capital Ankara which was broadcast by the Turkish state-owned TRT channel.
Turkey and the PKK are once again mired in a war in southeast Turkey following the collapse of a fragile two-and-a-half-year ceasefire last July.
Since that time thousands of PKK fighters and approximately 400 Turkish police, security and military personnel have been killed in clashes. Hundreds of civilians are also estimated to have been killed in the crossfire.
The reignited war has seem deadly PKK bomb attacks against security forces and sweeping Turkish crackdowns and curfews in towns and city districts in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast.
He made these remarks while giving a speech in the Turkish capital Ankara which was broadcast by the Turkish state-owned TRT channel.
Turkey and the PKK are once again mired in a war in southeast Turkey following the collapse of a fragile two-and-a-half-year ceasefire last July.
Since that time thousands of PKK fighters and approximately 400 Turkish police, security and military personnel have been killed in clashes. Hundreds of civilians are also estimated to have been killed in the crossfire.
The reignited war has seem deadly PKK bomb attacks against security forces and sweeping Turkish crackdowns and curfews in towns and city districts in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast.