World | Other World Stories
Turkish PM vows to battle PKK 'until the end'
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Saturday to continue to hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Iraq and criticised EU countries for not cracking down fully on PKK affiliates within the bloc.
- Agencies
- Published: 14:37 February 9, 2008
Munich: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Saturday to continue to hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Iraq and criticised EU countries for not cracking down fully on PKK affiliates within the bloc.
"We are going to continue until we win," Erdogan said in a speech to a security conference in the southern German city of Munich. "We will continue until the end because the security of our people is our top priority."
Erdogan criticised European countries for failing to crack down on PKK-led organisations he said were operating across the bloc. Turkey, the United States and the European Union all class the PKK as a terrorist group.
He said, "Despite this, the PKK is still operating in many European countries under different names. Unfortunately they are being supported."
Turkey has been carrying out periodic raids on PKK positions in the mountainous region near Turkey's border with northern Iraq for months to try to crush the group, which wants a separate Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since the group began its armed struggle in 1984.
More from Other World Stories
More from World
News Editor's choice
-
6,000 cups and counting: Addicted to that tea
This cafeteria in Al Mamzar attracts thousands of customers daily, including the rich and not so rich
-
Swimming pool horror: Twins hospitalised
Twins rushed to hospital after collapsing from chlorine inhalation at swimming pool in their villa
-
Play your cards right with credit card interest
UAE Central Bank plans to cap interest rates, but are you paying thirty-five per cent now?
