ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th May, 2023) In the run-up to the elections in Turkey on May 14, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed to Kurds on Thursday, counting on their support to build "the century of Turkey."
Presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey are scheduled to take place on Sunday. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, put forward by a six-party opposition alliance, is considered Erdogan's main opponent. results of pre-election polls have not yet revealed a clear favorite in the upcoming election.
"Dear Kurdish brothers and sisters! Until today we have been fighting hard for your rights. We have made very serious effort, so that mothers do not cry and hearts do not burn. You are the closest witnesses of our sincere efforts. You know very well what difficulties we have overcome and what traps have been set for us. Of course, we have had our faults, there have been things we wanted but could not do, but what we have brought Turkey concerning rights and freedoms is obvious. We will definitely not allow stepping back from them," Erdogan wrote on Twitter.
He added, that the government will work "until Turkey becomes a more free, peaceful and prosperous place for all the 85 million people (of its citizens)."
Erdogan pledged to build "the century of Turkey," as the republic celebrates its centenary in 2023, "with the support of our Kurdish brothers and sisters."
Kurds are the world's largest people without a state, living in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. They are seeking to create their own independent state of Kurdistan on the territories where they live. In 1984, an armed conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) broke out in Turkey and was resumed in 2015. There are PKK bases in the north of Iraq, against which the Turkish armed forces are conducting air and ground operations.
The Turkish military presence at the Zlikan military base, to the north-east of the Iraqi city of Mosul, has been the subject of disputes between Baghdad and Ankara for a while, with Turkey justifying it by the need to fight the PKK, which is banned in Turkey.
