President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to the terror-free Türkiye initiative launched by government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli.
Addressing a parliamentary group meeting of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Erdoğan said they had the same will they had in the past to realize a terror-free Türkiye or disarmament of the PKK terrorist group.
“The People’s Alliance shares the same goal and views, and Allah willing, we will achieve the terror-free Türkiye goal this time. We take political risk, vital risk to end a decades-old scourge of terrorism,” he said.
Erdoğan also criticized a statement by the office of Iraqi Kurdish politician Massoud Barzani describing Bahçeli as a “fascist.”
"Disrespectful statements against our ally Mr. Bahçeli (by Barzani’s office) are unacceptable,” he said.
The terror-free Türkiye initiative is the brainchild of Bahçeli, who urged the PKK's jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, to make a call for the dissolution of the terrorist group in 2024. Öcalan responded in kind and made the historic call to the PKK in February. The terrorist group, which still reveres its jailed leader, obeyed and announced last spring that it would dissolve itself. Within months, the initiative took several turns, including a landmark disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq and a declaration that the group withdrew from Türkiye and a key area in neighboring Iraq.
Türkiye is now
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