Turkish FM vows to ‘wipe out’ all of Turkey’s enemies

Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that Ankara will wipe out the Gulen movement, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Islamic State (ISIS), cleansing them from Turkey and beyond.  

“Traitors should know this: FETO (the Gulen movement), PKK, PYD (Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party), YPG (Syrian Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units), Daesh (ISIS) -- we will cleanse them all from our country and wipe out all of them,” he declared Sunday, at a memorial service for those who died in a failed July 15 coup attempt. 

“Members of FETO had tanks and helicopters on the night of the coup attempt. They were bombing and shooting at our people with sharpshooters from the high hills,” he said, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news. 

Cavusoglu alleged that the PKK is the Gulen movement’s “twin brother, blood brother and works together with them, and the PKK’s extension in Syria, the YPG, PYD, Daesh that target Turkey by misusing our religion, and ISIS traitors should not forget this: You may have subcontracted to some people. Your masters wanted to occupy this country, these territories but they could not. Now they use you as a tool and subcontractor. We will wipe out you too.” 

“You cannot divide this country. You attack dastardly, kill innocent, civilian people dastardly,” Cavusoglu said, before going on to condemn the PKK as “separatists and traitors.” 

“We will fight against them both in Turkish territories, and in Iraq and Syria where they live, and anywhere, even in Iran,” Cavusoglu vowed. 

Turkey has frequently alleged that its various enemies conspire against it. Following the October 2015 bombing of a peace rally in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan alleged that it was an attack carried out by the Syrian regime in collaboration with both ISIS and the PKK. 

Cavusoglu made his remarks following an attack on a wedding ceremony in Turkey’s Gaziantep province which left 51 people dead. Turkey believes that ISIS was behind the attack.