Turkish president visits southeast to ease tensions (2)

The demands sparked criticism from the government and opposition parties, who argued the model would harm the unity of Turkey.

The National Security Council (MGK), Turkey's top security board composed of civilian and military officials under the leadership of president, reacted by releasing a statement Wednesday.

"Attempts to change the understanding of 'one flag, one nation, one motherland, one government' and the fact that the official language of the Republic of Turkey is Turkish will not be accepted, " said the statement.

Starting his two-day visit to Diyarbakir, Gul said Turkish will continue to be Turkey's official language, while embracing the use of Kurdish and other ethnic languages in social life.

"We have citizens using different languages. Kurdish is used here, and there are some other citizens using Arabic in other places.All those languages are ours," he said.


【1】 【2】 【3】 【4】