Turkey's Erdogan Vows to Continue Airstrikes Until 'End' of PKK

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Tuesday that his country would continue its “comprehensive” operation against the Kurdish Worker's Party until the “end” of the organization.

Erdogan said that the PKK should not only lay down arms, but “bury” them under concrete until the group is no longer a threat to the Turkish state.

“Arms should be buried rather than dropped until terrorist organizations that brandish weapons against our people no longer pose threat to our country,” Erdogan said during a ceremony held to honor the incumbent chief of the General Staff Necdet Ozel on Tuesday.

The Turkish government and the PKK started a peace process in 2013 aimed at ending the decades-long conflict between Ankara and the Kurdish resistance group. However, the process has been recently put on hold after Turkey started bombing PKK camps in Southeast Turkey and in Iraq.

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The escalation comes as part of Turkey's two-pronged "anti-terror" offensive against the Islamic State group in Syria and the PKK militants in Northern Iraq and Turkey's Southeast. The majority of Turkish airstrikes however, have targeted the PKK.

Analysts see the recent escalation against the PKK as an attempt by Erdogan and his party to discredit the unprecedented Kurdish win in the recent general elections. In June, the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, or HDP, won more than 13 percent of the vote and secured at least 50 seats in the Parliament.

Erdogan has been trying to discredit the HDP by linking them with what he calls the “terrorist” PKK.

“The party that is the political extension of the terrorist organization could not turn the peace process into an opportunity to solve problems in a political manner,” said Erdogan, as he accused HDP of having indirect ties with the PKK.

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The Turkish state-run Anatolia news agency reported over the weekend that  390 "terrorists" have so far been killed in the campaign against the PKK.

Meanwhile, analysts say that Turkish offense is unable to stop the PKK. "Turkey's air campaign damages the PKK, but is not sufficient to destroy it," Pinar Elman, Turkey analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), told the French news agency AFP.

"The decades-old conflict has shown that military means are not sufficient to fight against the terrorist group, and political reforms are necessary," she added.

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