UPDATE 2 - Turkey to continue fight 'until last terrorist is dead'

UPDATES WITH PM'S REMARKS ON CYPRUS ISSUE AND EU ACCESSION PROCESS

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s prime minister said Tuesday that Turkey will continue to conduct its fight against terrorism until the last terrorist is dead.

Speaking at the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party's parliamentary group meeting, Binali Yildirim said: "Until the last terrorist in this territory is killed, we will resolutely continue our fight against terrorism."

He added: "We will continue our fight against terrorism not only at home but also abroad using our rights based on international law."

This June Turkish security forces killed 270 PKK terrorists in nationwide counter-terrorism operations.

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, more than 1,200 victims, including security force personnel and civilians, have lost their lives.

Turkey has been conducting operations in both Turkey and northern Iraq to fight the terrorist PKK.

- PM slams main opposition leader

Yildirim also slammed main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) head Kemal Kilicdaroglu for his allegations that the July 15, 2016 defeated coup attempt had been a "controlled coup," saying that with such remarks Kilicdaroglu is relinquishing control to someone else.

Kilicdaroglu has repeatedly claimed that the government had advance knowledge of the coup plot by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) but did nothing to prevent it.

"We can tolerate the remarks said to us to a certain extent. However, we will never allow someone to wrong our martyrs who lost their lives that night" of the coup, said Yildirim.

He added: "FETO, which wanted to occupy Turkey on July 15, is encouraged by Kilicdaroglu's recent remarks."

FETO and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gulen, orchestrated the defeated coup that martyred 250 people and injured nearly 2,200.

Ankara has also said FETO is behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

- Cyprus talks

Yildirim also addressed the collapse of talks on the Cyprus issue last week in Switzerland, blaming the impasse on the Greek Cypriot side's uncompromising, unilateral attitude.

"The Greek side sending a ship amid at drilling in the eastern Mediterranean Sea dynamited the solution while the talks were continuing in Switzerland. This revealed Greeks’ insincere attitude towards a solution."

A drilling vessel is working in the region under so-called licenses unilaterally issued by the Greek Cypriot administration, a development Turkey has warned against.

Yildirim stressed: "Our government will use our rights to the utmost based on international laws against this lawless, unilateral attitude."

At the failed Cyprus talks, representatives from the EU, the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaderships, and the guarantor nations of Turkey, Greece, and the U.K. took part in discussions to resolve the dispute.

The island has been divided since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks, and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power.

- ‘The EU needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the EU’

Yildirim also touched on remarks by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker about the decisions made by Turkey's government and its future with the EU.

Yildirim described Juncker's remarks as a threat to Turkey's sovereign rights. "Those who want to speak with Turkey softly and carry a big stick should know that the EU needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the EU."

Yildirim suggested that Juncker refrain from such remarks, saying that they damage avenues of communication.