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Ankara: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Kurdish PKK rebels to lay down their arms and said Ankara was "mature enough" to embrace "all kinds of political differences."
In a speech on Friday, he said, "One cannot reach anywhere by the way of terror. Give up this wrong path... without causing more pain to your mothers and fathers."
Speaking as Turkish troops left northern Iraq following a week-long offensive, Erdogan said, "Our democracy is mature enough to embrace all kinds of differences and all kinds of political opinions as long as they are on legal ground."
Erdogan urged Turkey's large Kurdish community to pursue their demands through politics, while urging unity. He said, "If we are to get rid of terror, we believe that the door of democratic politics should be kept open as a way of seeking rights and solutions."
The prime minister also stressed that PKK violence would not be tolerated, adding: "We will continue to fight terrorism with determination."
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