ANKARA
Turkey's operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) do not target Kurdish people, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said during his meeting with Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) reporters at Cankaya Palace in Ankara.
"Our operations in Iraq are not targeting Kurds as our operations in Syria are not targeting Arabs," Davutoglu said on Thursday.
Since July 24, around 1,700 people have been detained in a wave of counter-terrorism raids, amid a spike in attacks targeting police and the army after a July 20 deadly suicide bombing in the southeastern Suruc district which killed 32 civilians.
The bombing and later deadly attacks on security forces led to a nationwide crackdown on militant groups – primarily Daesh, the PKK and the leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front.
Turkey has also launched airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq, and Daesh in Syria.
Davutoglu said the operations against PKK would continue until the group disarm.
"Operations are not held against anyone in Turkey if armed groups leave Turkish borders as was promised and if guns are laid down," he added.
Concerns have been raised that Turkey’s solution process with the PKK has come to an end.
The Turkish government launched an initiative in early 2013 publicly known as the solution process to end the decades-old conflict with the PKK, a dispute which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people over 40 years.
