Turkish Interior Minister: "PKK is a women's organization"

The Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu made unusual and vague remarks on Tuesday about the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated a "terrorist organization" by Ankara.

Speaking at a gathering held on the occasion of the beginning of the new school term in Izmir's Dokuz Eylul University, Soylu said:

"PKK is a women's organization. I'm underlining this. There is a specific sociology and a specific philosophy underneath this aspect of being a women's organization. It has both a specific sociology and a specific philosophy of its own."

Stressing that it was important understanding this, he went on to say that the ministry has been implementing a policy of "combating not only terror but also terrorism."

He added that in this context they have begun to implement a new concept in the fight against the PKK.

"We are doing this by communicating with tens of thousands of people through means of mothers, fathers, families and siblings," he said.

He also noted that they were working on a project to deliver mothers' messages to their "terrorist" children, urging them to surrender.

"We have reached a decision," he continued. "There will not be even a single terrorist left in Turkey by 29 October 2023 [The centennial of the founding of the Turkish Republic]. This is the objective we are struggling to achieve."

The PKK has been waging armed struggle since early 1980s for the recognition of the social and cultural identity of the Kurdish people, and for rights including education in mother tongue and establishment of an autonomous administration. Abdullah Ocalan, the founding leader of the PKK, has been imprisoned since 1999 in conditions of severe solitary confinement.