(POL) DEPUTY PREMIER ARINC SAYS PKK'S NEW RECRUITMENTS SHOULD BE PREVENTED IN ORDER TO EREDICATE TERRORISM IN TURKEY.

AFYONKARAHISAR, Nov 16, 2009 (TUR) -- Deputy Premier Bulent Arinc said Saturday that in order to eradicate terrorism, measures should be taken to prevent youngsters from joining the terrorist organization PKK and encourage those who have joined to desert the organization.

Arinc who addressed the meeting of the Justice and Development Party Academy of Politics in Afyon, talked about the government's democratization initiative launched to address the Kurdish issue.

Arinc said terrorist organization PKK was able to make new recruitment partly due to unemployment and partly due to worries about the future.

He said there were many reasons for joining the terrorist organizations and listed these as denial, not being able to express themselves freely, mis-education.

"If you can't offer an alternative other than joining the terrorist organization PKK you can't be credible," said Arinc.

"If you solve the problem of terror, you will remove the obstacles in front of Turkey. We will no more waste the resources of our country, we will use these for the welfare of our people. We will use the wasted resources for the development of our country. We will gain prestige in the international arena," said Arinc.

Arinc said they invited all political parties, trade unions and labour organizations and non-governmental organizations to contribute to the initiative since day one.

Arinc said they exerted intense effort to meet the needs of the people in the southeast region of Turkey where the citizens of Kurdish origin are widely concentrated. He said the problem could not be named as the "Kurdish issue" therefore they named it democratization initiative.

(OZG-AY)

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)