ANKARA (AFP)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for expanding the democratic rights of the Kurdish community to erode support for separatism and finish off the rebel PKK group.
"The climate of freedoms is an enemy of violence and terrorism," Erdogan said in a televised speech at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Kizilcahamam, near Ankara.
"So, let's maintain pluralistic democracy and strengthen the climate of freedoms in order to secure the ultimate result in the struggle against terrorism... All experience shows that there is no other way out," he said.
"Terrorism loves the climate of oppression... Now it is time to act with reason and common sense," he added.
Erdogan's appeal came amid media reports that his government was considering a comprehensive plan to win over the Kurds and erode support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody 23-year campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey.
The group is listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and much of the international community.
Faced with mounting rebel violence, the government, backed by the opposition, obtained parliamentary authorization last month for a military incursion into neighboring northern Iraq, where the PKK takes refuge.
But Erdogan has also faced mounting calls to back the military struggle against the PKK with political, social and economic measures to boost the freedoms and the prosperity of the sizeable Kurdish community.
Under European Union pressure, Ankara has in recent year’s undertaken reforms to expand Kurdish cultural freedoms, including the inauguration of Kurdish-language broadcasts and private courses teaching the language.
Kurdish activists, however, say the reforms are inadequate.
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