No retreat in anti-PKK ops, Erdogan declares

Turkey's prime minister has vowed no letup in the fight against the terrorist PKK while also pledging to "learn lessons" from last week's mistaken killing of 35 villagers assumed to be militants from the group. "The struggle against terrorism will continue with determination," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday in his first speech to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliamentary group since his Nov. 26 surgery. "The terrorists will be rendered ineffective wherever they are, be it in the mountains, in the country or across the border," he said. "While doing this we will show utmost care not to harm civilians. We will learn lessons from the mistakes and heal the wounds, but we will never allow neither the terrorists nor their extensions to act as they will." He also said an investigation was under way "into each and every detail" of the incident, but did not elaborate. Erdogan vented anger at the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in response to its criticism of the government over the Dec. 28 air raid. In the raid that took place in the southeastern province of Sirnak's Uludere district, a group of smugglers, mostly teenagers, were killed after being misidentified as PKK militants. "To present this as a state bombing its people is nothing more than an effort to destroy the unity between state and nation. Those who even classify funerals as either Turkish or Kurdish are those who are following the path of the devil," Erdogan said. Without naming the party, Erdoğan called the BDP "vampires feeding on youths' blood" and said its leaders "cannot go even to the toilet if their armed masters do not loosen their leashes," referring to the PKK. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.