6 yıl önce

Tourists will return to Turkey's southeast, says Erdogan

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was hitting the campaign trail ahead of the June 24 election, told voters in Diyarbakir that all the country's citizens had the same rights irrespective of their background.

Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during an election rally in Diyarbakir.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that "tourists will roam where terror once loomed".

Speaking at in the southeastern Diyarbakir province at a campaign rally for the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, Erdogan said construction of 350 traditional stone houses had begun and they will be handed over to their rightful owners within a year.

During his speech Erdogan emphasised the actions his government had taken to rebuild the province, including the construction of 17 hospitals, 43 health facilities, and 16,847 houses built by state-owned housing agency TOKI.

He also said Surici, a historic region of Diyarbakir which was destroyed by PKK terrorists, had been restored.

TRT World's Melinda Nucifora attended the rally.

Erdogan said: "Today our whole region, including Diyarbakir, is the most peaceful since the last 40 years."

Our government, particularly our Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, all our security forces, Turkish Armed Forces have done their best. Our village guards have joined hands and done it all. Today the state is with its people as it has never been in the past."

In its more than 30-year terrorist campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU – has been responsible for the death of nearly 40,000 people.

More than 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including women and children, have been killed since July 2015 alone, when the terror group resumed its armed campaign against Turkey.

Erdogan said that Kurdish people were an integral part of Turkey.

"The Kurdish state is the Republic of Turkey. There is no need to look for another state for Kurds."

Erdogan stressed that people were entitled to different political aspirations, but achieving these political aspirations needed to be done within legitimate and legal boundaries.

"For a long time, no Kurdish citizen has been victimised because he is only Kurdish." Adding that all the country's citizens, be they Turk, Kurdish, Circassian or Bosniak all had the same rights in the country.