TurkishPress.com - 8/22/2005 - ISTANBUL - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Kurdish problem and PKK terrorism were different things, adding ''we won't confuse the two, we should separate them.'' Responding to questions of journalists about his meeting with intellectuals, his statements about Kurdish problem, and the following announcement of the terrorist organization PKK for one-month cease-fire, Erdogan said that ''we shouldn't correlate them. My mission, as the Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic is different, I am not a prime minister who fixes his schedule according to PKK. We had to take steps for the tranquility and happiness of the country, and we 'did' take that step to state the need of solution of Kurdish problem. The things that were discussed in the country decades ago, have been settled onto different basis today.''

Erdogan reminded different expressions of the same problem like the ''Eastern,'' ''Southeastern'' and ''Kurdish problem,'' and stressed that Kurdish problem was different than PKK terror or terrorism problem.

''Kurdish citizens are our citizens, this is a sub-identity. We shouldn't confuse that sub-identity with identity. These sub-identities come under the concept of Turkish Republic citizenship... There is not only a 'Kurdish' ethnic identity in Turkey, there are almost 30 ethnic identities, this shouldn't be mixed with being a citizen of Turkish Republic. I underlined the fact of 'one nation, one flag and one country' in my speech and we should share it.''

''This is the common problem of everybody in Turkey, but if other political party leaders don't take it as a problem, this doesn't concern me. They also use expressions such as 'discrimination,' -to accuse the prime minister- this isn't ethical. I embrace 72 million people without making discrimination among them, and I am at equal distance to all citizens and we should sort out this problem altogether,'' Erdogan said.

Referring to his meeting with delegation of intellectuals, Erdogan said that he was not in a position to get permission from the opposition parties before meeting certain delegations in the country and he could account for all the decisions he/his government took.