PKK can not speak for all Kurds

Prime Minister Erdogan, in Norway on official business, reacted sharply to a group in Oslo calling themselves the "Kurdistan National Council." The group of PKK sympathizers, saying that the "Turkish security operations amounted to war," received this answer from Erdogan: "I see you as terrorists. Is there a separate state within Turkey that you find it necessary to stop a war?" In further remarks addressed to the group, Erdogan said "The PKK group will never represent our Kurdish citizens. The PKK group can not and may not speak for the Kurds in Turkey."  After a speech entitled "The Search For Global Peace and Turkey's Role In It" given at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, members of the audience who introduced themselves as belonging to the "Kurdistan National Council" brought up a number of complaints, including accusations that "The Turkish Republic's Constitution has not accepted the existance of the Kurdish people" and that "The actions of the Turkish Security Forces constitute war."  Said Erdogan, "The struggle of our security forces in that region is to bring peace and happiness to the people living there, as well as to protect them from terror. The terrorist group PKK threatens the peace and security of people living in that region. If your war threatens peace, of course you will find the Turkish Republic in front of you. Neither our soldiers nor our police will ever give up fighting this kind of terror....this is why the government exists. We will never stop in our end of the struggle." "My Kurdish Brothers" Noting that there are many Kurdish member in his own Justice and Development Party, (AKP), Erdogan said further "There are Kurdish citizens in my party, my Kurdish brothers, and currently my party is the number one party in the area of Turkey with the highest Kurdish population. Most of the mayors in the Kurdish dominated areas are from the AKP."  Discussing the ethnic makeup of Turkey, Erdogan noted Turkey's mosaic nature, saying "There are Turks, Kurds, Laz, Georgians, Afkhazians....do you think there the only citizens of Turkey are Turks? We have around 30 different ethnicities represented in the country. But you don't want to see this, you just want to advertize to the world that fact that in one area of Turkey, there are Kurdish citizens. But no one is going to allow you to represent it like that."  The Constitution Protects Us Finishing his remarks, Erdogan said "Our shared common ground is citizenship in the Turkish Republic. This is our most important identity. This identity embraces many ethnicities. There is no separation within the Constitution. But if you wish to separate yourselves out, I cannot do anything about it." Â