Turkish PM seeks governors’ aid in Kurdish issue

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Prime Minister Erdoğan (L) and his newly appointed interior minister, Güler, hold brief talks at the Interior Ministry during a meeting of governors. AA Photo

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday asked governors across the country to assume responsibility in the government’s efforts to solve the Kurdish problem.

“We will be on alert for security, but we will not compromise on democratization, laws and investments,” Erdoğan said in Ankara in a speech delivered at the Governors’ Meeting of the Interior Ministry, where he was addressing the governors of Turkey’s 81 provinces. At the same time, President Abdullah Gül cautioned the governors to take pains to maintain the delicate balance between freedom and security while serving citizens. “We will continue to walk together with our nation. This process we are in is the solution process and our governors bear great responsibility in this atmosphere,” Erdoğan said.

At the same time, President Abdullah Gül cautioned the governors to take pains to maintain the delicate balance between freedom and security while serving citizens.

“We will continue to walk together with our nation. This process we are in is the solution process and our governors bear great responsibility in this atmosphere,” Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan said the public had high hopes for the process. “We are using all means to increase these hopes,” the prime minister said. “We must be closer to our people. We should make them feel that today’s Turkey is not the old Turkey.” He also said he wanted governors to be the “smiling, embracing face of the state” in their provinces.

“The governor who represents the ‘iron fist’ of the state is a thing of the past … Citizens will be able to reach you, and you will be able to reach me. There is no holiday for us, we are working 24 hours a day.”

Once the terror problem is resolved, Turkey’s economy will rapidly boom and the country will be able to shape the world’s horizons, he said.

Each and every citizen pays the cost of terror, Erdoğan said, adding that the problem had been an obstacle to the resolution of both macro and micro problems. “We have been in an intense fight against terrorism for 10 years. We have never had one-dimensional thoughts and never looked at terror only in regard to its public order and security dimensions,” said Erdoğan, whose ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been in power since 2002.

“As terror loses its grounds of exploitation and the quagmires in which it is nourished, the problem will very rapidly be resolved and, don’t worry, God willing, it will drop from our agenda. We will not give the tiniest concession in the fight against terror. We will never stop being vigilant and sensitive concerning security.”

Gül also delivered a speech as he hosted the governors over a luncheon at Çankaya Presidential Palace. A state’s most important reason for existence is maintaining the comfort and security of its citizens, he said, underlining the importance of coordination among security units.

“Consequently, in your zones of duty, providing security, public order, comfort and security should always be your priority. As the administrators of the state, we will of course take rights and freedoms of citizens into consideration while taking security precautions,” Gül said.

“We all have the duty to constantly care for the security-freedom balance, which we always highlight, and for not sacrificing freedom and security against each other,” he added.