Turkish President Erdogan vows to root out terrorism

ANKARA (AA) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday vowed to fight against terrorist groups until they are rooted out.

Addressing governors from Turkey’s 81 provinces in the capital Ankara, Erdogan said that one of the important parts of fighting both the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) – the group blamed for the July 15 defeated coup – and the PKK is eliminating their members from public positions.

“We have taken speedy steps as part of the state of emergency,” declared after the foiled coup, he said.

Erdogan said the same process has started for PKK supporters and that he would continue fighting these groups until they are gone.

On Thursday, Turkey’s education ministry suspended over 11,000 schoolteachers over suspected links with the terrorist PKK.

-No difference between terrorist groups

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU – resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July 2015.

Since then, PKK terrorist attacks martyred more than 600 security personnel and also claimed the lives of many civilians, including women and children, while more than 7,000 PKK terrorists were killed in army operations.​

Erdogan said that there were no differences between the PKK and FETO or Daesh and the DHKP-C.

“They are all enemies of our country, people, flag, homeland, and state,” he said.

“We have seen this more openly and clearly after living through July 15,” he added.

The Turkish government says U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen organized the July 15 coup attempt, which left 240 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1997, is also accused of running a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.

-Turkey's operation changed things

On Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria, near Turkey’s border, Erdogan said Turkey's unforgettable and successful operation has changed the international viewpoint on the region.

"In its wake, it is not possible to put any scenario into effect in the region in which Turkey isn’t involved or doesn’t consent."

He underlined that Turkey would continue its operations until it takes control of its borders, saying: "There is no Daesh in [the border city of] Jarabulus right now."

Erdogan said Turkey could not accept terrorist efforts to carve out a corridor in northern Syia, saying that instead, Turkey would make a peace corridor.

"We have no designs on Syrian territory," he added.

Operation Euphrates Shield began on Aug. 24 when the Free Syria Army, backed by the Turkish Armed Forces, liberated Jarabulus.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings – with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter-million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.