Erdogan asks for women's support in anti-terror efforts

Speaking in an assembly of female Turkish Metal Union workers on Wednesday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed to women, especially mothers, to support the resolution of Turkey's Kurdish issue, saying that women's input is necessary for the eventual success of the process. Stating that the government no longer wants to see mothers fearfully waiting for the return of their sons from mandatory military service, nor did they want to see mothers worried about their sons trapped within the outlawed PKK, Erdogan said, "If all the women of this country say 'stop' to terror, then terror will end." Underlining that no country where mothers cry and women suffer can be a happy and prosperous country, Erdogan noted, "We have opened a blank page. We have ended discrimination, refusal, denial and assimilation. We have taken hundreds of steps in order to compensate for wrongdoings made in the past." Erdogan said that the government has paved the way for affirmative action toward women through a constitutional amendment, adding that no matter whom it targets, we condemn and damn all kinds of violence. "Public opinion and media have become more sensitive to violence against women. Violence has begun to decrease thanks to both legal arrangements and sensitivity. As long as this sensitivity prevails, each savage who attempts to conduct violence against women will be condemned by society and at the same time, he will serve his penalty within the framework of the law," Erdogan added.