By Merve Aydogan
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's president on Saturday reaffirmed the country's determination to completely eliminate the PKK terrorist organization.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the comments at an iftar (fast-breaking meal) at the Vahdettin Mansion in Istanbul with mothers who have been staging a sit-in in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
Erdogan was accompanied by First Lady Emine Erdogan, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Communications Director Fahrettin Altun.
Speaking at the event, the Turkish president said the country will "continue its fight until the last terrorist is neutralized and the last child abducted by PKK reunites with their family."
The mothers are protesting against the PKK terror group and its Syrian offshoot YPG as they have abducted their children.
The protest has been going on for over 610 days outside the offices of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which the government accuses of having links to the PKK.
Erdogan vowed to "topple" the Qandil Mountains, a hideout for the PKK in northern Iraq.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.
– 'Cruel Israel, terror state of Israel'
The Turkish president also slammed the latest Israeli violence against Palestinians, saying the "cruel Israel, terror state of Israel" is brutally and immorally attacking Muslims in Jerusalem.
He called on Israel to immediately end vile attacks against Al-Aqsa Mosque and Muslims in Jerusalem.
While expressing solidarity with the people in Jerusalem and Muslims in Palestine, Erdogan urged everyone "who defines themselves as a human-being" to oppose the "oppressors polluting Jerusalem, which is sacred to all three religions, with immoral, unlawful, disrespectful attacks."
He also urged the entire world, especially Islamic countries, to take action against Israel's attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem and Palestinian homes.
Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets to disperse Muslim worshippers from the mosque, the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims, on Friday evening.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent, at least 205 people were injured by Israeli forces in the Old City and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods.
Tensions have run high in the Sheikh Jarrah area all through the week as Israeli settlers have swarmed in after an Israeli court ordered the eviction of Palestinian families.
Since 1956, a total of 37 Palestinian families have been living in 27 homes in the neighborhood. However, illegal Jewish settlers have been trying to push them out on the basis of a law approved by the Israeli parliament in 1970.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is seen as occupied territory under international law, thus making all Jewish settlements there illegal.
