Turkish PM Erdoğan wants no show at captives’ release

ISTANBUL

PM Erdoğan also criticized the main opposition for having sent a parliamentary group to meet the Syrian President.

The release of public servants and soldiers kidnapped by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), expected to be released this week, should not be turned into a show, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned on March 7. 

“We don’t want to experience a second Habur. We want this [release] to end successfully without overshadowing the peace process,” Erdoğan said during a press conference with Surinamese Vice-President Robert Ameerali, referring to the Habur incident of 2009. 

Four years ago, a process launch by the government to accept eight PKK members and 28 Kurdish refugees from the Makhmour Camp in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq was disrupted by a festive welcome at the Habur border gate. 

The incident was perceived as “a show of force” by the government and sparked public outcry throughout the rest of Turkey, eventually causing the peace initiative at that time to come to a halt. Erdoğan insisted that the only worry was the pursuit of the process without disruption and pleaded patience. 

Responding to a reporter’s question, the Turkish Prime Minister criticized the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for having sent a parliamentary group composed of three deputies to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

“Why did the main opposition send three deputies to meet this tyrant? What’s the intended result? That must be called to attention,” Erdoğan said. 

‘Complain for shelters?’

He also added his outrage regarding the Syrian initiative to file an official complaint to the U.N. on Turkey. “Will he complain about us because we shelter 250,000 [Syrians] on our soil? Or will he do it because he is perpetrating a genocide [in Syria]?” he said.

Meanwhile, Erdoğan also said that the motherhood is a superior level of womanhood, while heralding the government’s preparation to introduce a “flexible work model” for women so that motherhood can be experienced comfortably. He discussed the importance attached to motherhood in the religion of Islam.