Türkiye in favor of lasting peace in region: Erdoğan

MUŞ

Türkiye is in favor of lasting peace in the region and resolving the differences through diplomacy and dialogue, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, reiterating Ankara’s commitment to creating a "terror-free Türkiye" and a "terror-free region."

“We favor the establishment of lasting peace in our entire region. We favor the solution of problems through dialogue and diplomacy. No one should ever forget that we as Turks, Arabs and Kurds will live side by side forever in this geography,” Erdoğan said in his address commemorating the 954th anniversary of the Manzikert Victory in the southeastern province Muş's Malazgirt district on Aug. 26.

“We will still be here even after those, who feed on Muslims’ blood, disappear from the stage of history.”

Erdoğan was in Bitlis and Muş for a two-day visit as part of the week-long Victory Week ceremonies. The Manzikert Victory by the Seljuk empire against the Byzantines in 1071 paved the way for Turks to enter and settle in Anatolia.

In his address, he touched on the continued efforts to resolve the four-decades-old PKK problem through what the government calls the "terror-free Türkiye" project.

“We have made important progress in a short time in the process of terror-free Türkiye. All our institutions continue to work in a meticulous way,” he said, stressing that this could be achieved despite efforts to sabotage the process.

“Whatever they do, they will fail. Nobody will be able to stop this wave of hope that stems from the support of our people,” Erdoğan said

PKK announced in May that it decided to disarm and dissolve after a historic call by its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan. The first group of members dropped and burned their weapons during a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq in July.

In the meantime, a parliamentary panel has launched its works to address legal, social and political aspects of the anti-terrorism bid.

Indirect message to YPG

Erdoğan has also conveyed an indirect message to YPG, PKK’s affiliation in Syria, which is in a process of negotiations for the integration of its armed forces with the new Syrian army.

“The guarantee of the security of Kurds in Syria is Türkiye. Those who will turn their faces to Ankara and Damascus will win. But those who lose their path will lose,” Erdoğan stressed.

He also indirectly urged YPG not to try to find “new foreign bosses” in the region, referring to ongoing contacts between the terror group and Israel.