Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged Friday that the Kurdish conflict in Turkey would be resolved with "more democracy" despite a marked increase in violence by armed Kurdish rebels whom Ankara considers "terrorists."
"I want you to know that there will be no going back from the point Turkey has come to... We will not allow any regression in the democracy process," Erdogan said in an emotional speech in this key city of Turkey's mainly Kurdish south-east.
"We will resolve all problems with more democracy, more civil rights and more prosperity," he said, frequently interrupted by applause from a crowd of some 1,000 people.
In Arbil, northern Iraq, a senior Turkish Kurd rebel leader welcomed Erdogan's statement, but said he wanted to see how this translates into action.
"We believe Erdogan's statements are significant," but what matters is what concrete actions will be taken on the ground, Zubeyir Aydar, head of KONGRA-GEL, a sub-group of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said in a statement received by AFP.