Turkey fighting terror on three fronts, Davutoglu says

ANKARA

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday outlined Turkey’s fight against terrorism as a battle on three fronts.

Addressing a meeting of provincial heads of the Justice and Development (AK) Party in Ankara, Davutoglu said Turkey was lined up against groups purporting to represent Sunni Islam, the Kurds and Alevi Muslims.

The premier said Daesh, which claimed to support Sunni Muslims, damaged Islam while the terrorist PKK killed mostly Kurds. The other group is the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) that claimed to support Turkey’s Alevis.

"These three terror organizations that supposedly fight against each other, acted against Turkey at the same time,” Davutoglu said, referring to last July’s suicide bombing in the southeastern town of Suruc that saw a Daesh-linked bomber targeting an activist group. The attack was followed by PKK attacks on police.

He added: "From that day, we are continuing our fight with these three terror organizations."

Referring to the arrests of two DHKP-C suspects on Tuesday, Davutoglu congratulated the police involved.

Turning to counter-terror operations in the southeast, he said they would soon end in Cizre and Sur.

He rejected claims that Turkish security forces were preventing medical attention reaching those wounded during the operations. "Even if a terrorist is injured, we take him, treat him and bring him to justice," Davutoglu said.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization also by the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July. Since then, more than 250 members of the security forces have been martyred and thousands of PKK terrorists killed.

"When problems come up in Syria, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens turn toward Turkey," Davutoglu noted. "When problems come up in Iraq [they] turn toward Turkey. When problems came up in the Balkans in the 90s they turned toward Turkey."