RIZE, Turkey, — Turkish Premier insists on war and military operations in Kurdistan. “No one should expect us to stop anti-KCK operations”, he insisted.
Erdogan made it clear that his government has no intention to stop with the repression of Kurds. The PM in the Black Sea province of Rize warned “those who criticize these operations: You must know the KCK well and if you don’t, then you must learn from people who are experts on it.”
After professor Buşra Ersanlı and publisher Ragıp Zarakolu were arrested last week by in Istanbul court along with 43 others, the KCK case hit the headlines again, sparking a reaction in the academic world. Indeed, no one can feel safe: that was the message Ersanlı and Zarakolu’s arrests sent.
Uneasiness started to be expressed by some media circles as well, but Prime Minister Erdogan was quick in his answer. “The statements you make in the media or somewhere else, without knowing what the KCK is linked to and who does what in this organization, amount to support for terrorism, serving terrorism,” he said.
What the Premier is saying is “shut up or you end up in prison”. The threat is crystal clear. And indeed it comes after a rather disturbing meeting between the prime minister and the main agency’s bosses which ended with the media bosses basically accepting to “moderate tones” when it comes to talk about the Kurdish issue. In other words, self imposed censorship; something which immediately sparked the reaction of media in Turkey and freedom of the press organizations around the world.
Yet Erdogan goes on down his path “we respect Kurds as much as we respect Turks” he said, adding that the government will not allow attempts to create a “parallel state” in Turkey.
“There can be no second state. If there are those who call me ‘statist’ or ‘nationalist’ because I say this, then I am a statist, then I am a nationalist,” he said.