President Tayyip Erdogan described himself as a "guardian of
peace" on Saturday as he called on Kurds in conflict-torn southeast Turkey
to vote 'yes' in a referendum in two
weeks time on reforms that would grant him
sweeping new powers.
Since the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire in July 2015, the mainly
Kurdish southeast has been rocked by some of the most intense fighting in three
decades of conflict between Kurdish militants and Turkish security forces.
According to a United Nations estimate, about 2,000 people were killed
and up to a half a million displaced in the state's conflict with Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) militants.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), strongly supported in
the southeast but cast by Erdogan as an extension of the PKK, was among the
targets of the president's ire during a rallying speech in the region's largest
city Diyarbakir.
"These supporters of the PKK keep on saying 'peace, peace, peace'.
Does empty talk bring peace? Could there be peace with those who walk around
with weapons in their hands?" he said.
"We are the guardians of peace, we are the guardians of
freedoms," he said as a crowd of several thousand in the city center waved
Turkish flags.
"WALK TOGETHER"
The ruling AK Party, which Erdogan founded, also has strong support in
the southeast. In a close race, pollsters say Kurdish voters, about a fifth of
the electorate, could tip the balance in the April 16 referendum.
The HDP opposes the constitutional reform but its ability to campaign
has been devastated by a crackdown which has led to the jailing of its leaders,
a dozen of its MPs and thousands of its members on charges of PKK links. The
state has taken over municipalities which the HDP had hitherto run.
The HDP denies direct links to the PKK, seen as a terrorist
organization by Europe, the United States and Turkey.
"We are ready to talk, to walk together with everyone who has
something to say or has a project," Erdogan said. "We have one
condition. There will be no guns in their hands."
Erdogan says Turkey needs a strong presidency to avoid the fragile
coalition governments of the past. His critics cite the arrest, dismissal or
suspension of more than 100,000 teachers, civil servants, soldiers, judges and
journalists since a failed coup last July as evidence of his authoritarian
instincts.
Braving nationalist anger, Erdogan introduced tentative reforms on
Kurdish rights and in 2012 launched negotiations to try to end a PKK insurgency
that has killed 40,000 people since 1984. But a ceasefire collapsed in July
2015 and fighting flared anew.
*REUTERS*
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