Turkey to judge all terror perpetrators fairly, PM says

By Humeyra Atilgan Buyukovali

ANKARA

Turkey will bring to account all the perpetrators of terror acts "not in revenge but with justice," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed on Tuesday.

"Turkish justice will call [the terrorist organizations] to account for our martyrs," Yildirim told a party group meeting at parliament in the capital Ankara.

He referred to Monday's PKK car-bomb attack against a traffic police station in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakir, which martyred one child and five police officers.

"There is no Kurdish issue for PKK, but there is a PKK problem for our Kurdish citizens," Yildirim stressed. "Our duty is to eliminate this problem and remove that bloody-minded terror organization from our region."

Yildirim said PKK is serving for the same purpose as that of the U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen's terror organization, or FETO – accused of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt.

"They [the two] made quite a lot of efforts to turn Turkey into a country like Iraq, Syria, or Egypt, both before July 15 and later," Yildirim said.

"They worked hard to quicken [a possible] civil war in Turkey. They would later appear as a savior and deepen the brotherhood fight in this country."

"However, the solidarity between the public and the state on the July 15 night ruined all such plans," Yildirim said.

The foiled putsch last month left 240 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured. Since then, many people in Turkey have been calling for "death penalty" for the coup attempters.

Responding to the participants in the group meeting who were also shouting that they wanted the "death penalty", Yildirim said: "Death penalty is death for once; however, there are greater deaths for them, which is objective and fair judgment."

About a possible reinstatement of the death penalty in Turkey for those involved in the defeated coup, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his stance that the decision would be left up to Turkish lawmakers in the parliament.

Erdogan repeatedly has said he would approve reinstating the death penalty if the parliament approves.

Such a penalty could be imposed on Gulen as well, who is accused of leading a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the “parallel state”.

Since the deadly coup attempt, Turkish government has been clearing the state institutions off FETO and parallel state members.

Yildirim assured citizens not to be anxious about such steps.

"Those Muslim people who have been doing charity work warm-heartedly have nothing to do with these [terror organizations]," he said.

"We need to settle a score with those who exploited such good feelings and who took money from our citizens [for charity work] but used it to attack on people with arms, tanks, and planes."

Yildirim said they would definitely differentiate between the innocent and the guilty, but admitted: "It will not be easy."

Turkish PM said once more that the terror attacks, including the deadly July 15 coup attempt, "did not hit Turkey's economy," adding that both the banking and finance sectors have been operating well.

Pointing out that Turkey is available for investments, he said an economic stimulus package was on the way to enliven the economy.

"Let's not permit that terror makes the agenda of Turkey any more. Let's focus on economy and development more," Yildirim said.