ISTANBUL: More than 100,000 people attended an "anti-terrorism" rally in Istanbul Sunday to back President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's controversial offensive against Kurdish rebels, six weeks before snap elections he hopes will boost his powers.
Despite being organised by a coalition of NGOs, the giant gathering on Yenikapi Square on the shores of the Marmara Sea resembled an election rally, with Erdogan vowing in a barnstorming speech to pursue the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) "to the terrorists' last redoubt".
The separatists have killed dozens of police and soldiers in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in July, with Ankara striking back with almost daily air raids on their bases on both sides of the border with Iraq.
"There is no question of making the slightest concession to terrorism," Erdogan told the crowd, a sea of red Turkish flags.
"Martyrs never die, the homeland cannot be divided," read a headbands worn by many of the demonstrators, referring to the slain security force members.
Erdogan's two-month-old offensive against the PKK, who have responded with a ferocity unseen since the 1990s, is viewed with suspicion by his critics.
They accuse him of using a suicide bombing in the southeastern town of Suruc that was blamed on Islamic State (IS) jihadists as a pretext for reigniting the three-decade-long conflict for electoral gain.
Erdogan has tarred the PKK and IS with the same brush of extremism, but devoted much more firepower to airstrikes on PKK's bases along Turkey's border with Iraq than to air raids against the Kurds' jihadist foes in Syria.
- 'No PKK in parliament' -
On Thursday, an "anti-terrorism" rally in the capital Ankara drew more than 10,000 people.
AFP
