Erdogan urges Kurds to stand up to PKK

Turkey's prime minister yesterday strongly condemned a recent spate of deadly attacks on civilians by the terrorist PKK and urged the country's Kurdish community to stand up to the "murderous gang." Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also slammed the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) for keeping close to the militants and denounced Kurdish voters who support the party, speaking at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) yesterday. "What does this violence have to do with a struggle for cultural rights? How can your culture let you kill innocent people in cold blood?" Erdogan said, recalling a car bomb that killed three people in Ankara earlier this month and Monday's rocket attack in Batman that claimed the life of a pregnant woman, her daughter and unborn baby, who was saved but later died in hospital. "I'm calling on our Kurdish brothers, our brothers in faith: How can you support an organization that fires rockets at your places of worship? You should stand up to them and resist," he said. "We have to do this together. Nation and state hand-in-hand, we must condemn them to isolation."