Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Political Academy convention of the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Afyon provincial presidency, Arınç said unemployment and fear of the future were the two major reasons behind new recruits’ joining the PKK. He said there were other reasons as well, such as an inability to express oneself and a lack of education. “I know that region really well. If you can’t give them another option than joining the PKK when they ask you, ‘what will become of us?’, there is no meaning to your words of patriotism. There are no investments; you issue incentives, but nobody applies for them.”
Arınç said solving the terror problem would mean a brighter future for Turkey. “If you solve terror, Turkey will make leaps of improvement. We would stop wasting our own resources and use them for the wealth of our people. Our reputation in the international arena would rise. Before anything else, this problem is one of national security. Without it, we could spend the money we pour into this on improving our country.”
He said civil society organizations and professional groups have contributed their opinions to the democratic initiative project of the government to end terrorism, noting that the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have opposed the initiative from the start and therefore did not share their views.
He said: “Our people in that region want to speak, sing, read and publish in their language -- which they have been doing since 2002. This is what the people want, not what the PKK wants.” He said the government was working to meet all the demands of the region’s residents.
“As long as there are returnees, we will also be preventing new recruits,” he said. “This is a psychological move. They will think, ‘those ones are coming back, why should I join?’”
