Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a tour in local provinces in a bid to rally people's support for his political initiative which aimed at addressing the 25-year-old conflict with the Kurdish rebels.
Erdogan began his tour in Malatya, a province in eastern Turkey consisting of a combination of Turkish and Kurdish citizens, to promote his initiative.
The controversial initiative, launched last July, has been facing fierce opposition by nationalist and secular parties. The only Kurdish party in the parliament voiced reservations over the initiative.
Addressing locals in Malatya, Erdogan said his government would exert efforts to explain the "road map" for the Turkish people to put an end to the bloody conflict which claimed lives of over 40,000 people.
He said conferences, seminars and dialogue sessions will be held nationwide to explain the initiative.
The initiative, added Erdogan, aims at granting the Kurdish minority cultural rights and freedoms in a bid to stop bloodshed "which was sparked by the Kurdish rebelion in 1984." The conflict with outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) has costed Turkey around USD 300 billion from taxpayers money, said Erdogan. "Has this money been saved, we could have built more than 100 schools and improve health and social services for citizens," he added.
The Prime Minister slamed at the opposition for refusing the peaceful solutions with the PKK rebels, and said the opposition wanted the bloodshed to continue so their own commercial business would flourish. "There are groups (which he did not mention) who do not want this vicious circle (conflict with PKK) to end." The Republican People's Party, the opposition biggest parties, said the government's initiative was dangerous and partition the country.
It said the initiative threatened the national unity of the Turkish people.
Erdogan officially launched his "Democratic Openness" initiative before the parliament last Friday. His initiative is backed by Europe and neighboring countries namely Syria and Iraq.
KUNA
