Peace Process with Kurdish Militants Can’t Continue - Turkish President Erdogan  

Turkey can't continue a peace process with the Kurdish rebels who are attacking Turkish targets, the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. 

It is impossible to continue “the peace process with those who target our national unity and brotherhood,” Erdogan told reporters on Tuesday before leaving on an official visit to China, according to hurriyetdailynews.com.

Erdogan's comments come as NATO started an extraordinary meeting at Turkey’s to discuss the country’s military campaigns against the Islamic State (IS) group and Kurdish militants.

Turkish Air Force jets bombed camps of Kurdish militants in northern Iraq over the weekend after several Turkish police officers and soldiers were killed in attacks blamed on the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara lists as a terrorist organisation.

A two-year old ceasefire between the Turkish government and PKK has largely held so far. The PKK has not denounced the ceasefire agreement after the airstrikes, although it said they made the peace process meaningless.

The Turkish government was “sincere” on the peace process, but the process was “exploited”, Erdogan said.

He also called on parliament to strip some lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of their immunity from prosecution and make them “pay the price” for alleged links to “terrorist groups.”

Erdogan also said domestic and cross-border operations will continue against those groups and added it was time to enact security legislation recently adopted by parliament. 

“Those who exploit the people and the state’s tolerance and patience will receive the answer they deserve as soon as possible. Any step back is out of the question. This is a process and this process will continue with the same determination,” he said.

Some Kurds say that “by reviving open conflict with the PKK, Erdogan is seeking to undermine support for HDP ahead of a possible early election and stoke up nationalist sentiment,” Reuters said in its coverage of Erdogan’s comments.
The opposition HDP captured about 13% of the vote in last month’s general election, mostly won at the expense of Erdogan’s governing Justice Development Party (AKP), which lost its majority in parliament.

Erdogan also said that the establishing of a safe zone in northern Syria free of IS militants – an idea discussed by Turkey and the United States - would help the return home of 1.7 million Syrian refugees who have fled toTurkey to escape atrocities commited by the jihadist group.

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