Turkey should consider stripping citizenship from supporters of terrorism - Erdogan

Breaking Headlines
2016-04-05 | 10:13
High views
Share
LBCI
Share
LBCI
Whatsapp
facebook
Twitter
Messenger
telegram
telegram
print
Turkey should consider stripping citizenship from supporters of terrorism - Erdogan
Whatsapp
facebook
Twitter
Messenger
telegram
telegram
print
3min
Turkey should consider stripping citizenship from supporters of terrorism - Erdogan
Turkey should consider stripping citizenship from supporters of terrorism, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, adding that the government had "nothing to discuss with terrorists".
 
His comments, in a speech to a group of lawyers in the capital Ankara, come 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 southeast, 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 in comments broadcast live on television.
 
"This state has nothing to discuss with terrorists. That business is over." 
 
Erdogan did not specify who he was targeting with the comments. In the past he said that those Turkey accuses of supporting terrorism - whether they are journalists or aid workers - are 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, spearheaded by Erdogan, that was seen as the best chance at ending one of Europe's longest-running insurgencies. Almost 400 soldiers and police and thousands of militants have been killed since July, Erdogan said last week.
He also said on Tuesday that parliament should "immediately" act to strip parliamentarians of their legal immunity from prosecution.
  
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. 
 
 
REUTERS

Breaking Headlines

Turkey

Terrorism

LBCI Next
Grand Mufti Derian travels to Saudi Arabia for Hajj
Download now the LBCI mobile app
To see the latest news, the latest daily programs in Lebanon and the world
Google Play
App Store
We use
cookies
We use cookies to make
your experience on this
website better.
Accept
Learn More