NTV MSNBC, Turkey
April 12 2005
The PKK cannot speak on the behalf of Kurds: Erdogan
The Turkish Prime Minister said that there was no Kurdish problem in
Turkey.
April 12 – There was no such thing as a Kurdish problem in Turkey,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during an address at
the Nobel Institute in Norway Tuesday.
`If you say, ‘ there is a Kurdish question in Turkey,’ this is
unfortunately creating an artificial problem. There is no such
problem for us,’ Erdogan said.
Erdogan’s comments came as a response to a person in the
audience who said he was the representative of the Kurdistan National
Congress who said that almost 30 separate ethnic groups lived in
Turkey.
`The PKK cannot speak in the name of Kurds. Who are you to
talk about ending the war? Is there a separate state within Turkey?’
Erdogan said.
The Prime Minister also underlined that it was not possible
that the security forces of Turkey would not react to the acts of
terrorism.
As he was leaving a meeting with the head of the Norwegian
Parliament Erdogan was confronted by supporters of the terrorist
group the PKK. The Prime Minister escaped the eggs thrown at him by
ducking down, though his bodyguards were splattered by the thrown
eggs.
On Monday, Erdogan made a statement blaming the west and the
European Union for the raising the issue of the Kurdish question and
the so-called Armenian genocide. In his statement Erdogan said that
the west was confused over the terms of Kurds and the PKK and was
trying to divide Turkey.
`To show all Kurds as members of the PKK is very ugly. The
west is making use of this,’ he said.