Ankara – Turkey will not surrender to terrorism, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday from the southeastern city hit by a suicide bomb attack last week.
Addressing a crowd in central Gaziantep — where 54 guests at a wedding party, including 34 children, were killed on Aug. 20 — he said: “These betrayers will be drowned in the blood they shed… Turkey has not and will not surrender to any terrorist organizations or terror methods.”
The Gaziantep attack has been linked to Daesh but Erdogan said all terror groups served the same purpose.
“We know the same face is behind all of them,” he said. Turkey currently faces attacks from Daesh as well as the PKK and is engaged in supporting the Free Syrian Army against the PKK/PYD in Syria.
“Turkey has no toleration for any terrorist organization activities within its borders and nearby,” the president told the flag-waving crowd. “Our operations against the separatist organization will continue without interruption.”
Referring to the Turkish-backed operation in Syria, which saw Jarabulus liberated from Daesh last week, as well as the Turkish military’s training mission in northern Iraq, he added: “We are in Jarabulus for this. We are in Bashiqa for this. If necessary, we will not hesitate to take responsibility in other regions.”
He pledged that Turkey would show the same determination in eradicating the PKK/PYD as in fighting Daesh.