Chief Of General Staff Says Turkey Will Stay Secular

Addressing a conference on the Middle East at the Turkish Staff Officers'School yesterday, Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt said that the struggle in Israel had many similarities with the PKK problem.

“Although Israel controls all the harbors, the missiles are still entering its land. The same situation exists in the PKK problem. I am trying to approach the problem not from a regional perspective, but a global perspective.”

“If you are not helping then do not prevent it either”

Criticizing the outside help the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) gets, Büyükanıt said, “The terrorist organization was using mules before, now it receives supply shipments with trucks. If you are not helping the terrorist activities, then how does this happen?”

“Another problem in the Middle East is the armament process. Because of the insensitive approaches of the big states, the terror organizations can easily get weapons. Against this, a  global security perspective needs to be developed.” 

Büyükanıt also complained about terrorism in the region, stating that the current situation in the region helped terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in particular, strengthen.

“As someone who struggles with these problems, I can say that if you are not helping, then do not prevent it either”, said Büyükanıt.

 “Secular Turkey is the only model”

About Turkey’s secular structure, Büyükanıt said, "We see there are those who try to put adjectives in front of the Republic of Turkey. The legal institutions of the Republic of Turkey will never let this happen," adding that Turkey was faced with "impositions wrapped in the concept of democracy."