Erdogan warns terror supporters

Call for Turkey to consider stripping them of citizenship

ANKARA // Turkey should consider stripping citizenship from those who support terrorism, president Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday, adding that the government had “nothing to discuss with terrorists”. His comments came after he ruled out on Monday a revival of peace talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

He has vowed to stamp out the conflict in the mainly Kurdish south- east, at its deadliest in two decades, once and for all.

“We need to be decisive to take all the necessary measures, including stripping of citizenship for terror organisation supporters,” he said.

“This state has nothing to discuss with terrorists. That business is over.” Mr Erdogan did not specify who he was targeting with the comments. In the past he said that those Turkey accused of supporting terrorism – whether they were journalists or aid workers – were no different from terrorists themselves. Such comments have worried rights advocates who fear that anti- terrorism laws, already used to detain academics and opposition journalists, will now be used in courts to stifle discussion of issues such as the Kurdish conflict. The autonomy- seeking PKK abandoned its two-year ceasefire in July, reigniting a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives, mainly Kurdish, since 1984. The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The violence has wrecked a peace process, led by Mr Erdogan, that was considered the best chance at ending one of Europe’s longest- running in- surgencies. About 400 soldiers and police and thousands of militants have been killed since July, Mr Erdogan said last week.

Yesterday, he also urged parliament to immediately act to strip parliamentarians of their legal immunity from prosecution.

Mr Erdogan has been lobbying for an end to the immunity, accusing the Kurdish-rooted Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), parliament’s third-largest party, of being an extension of the PKK.

The HDP says it is opposed to violence and wants a peaceful solution for Turkey’s Kurds.