- Title: Incoming leader of Turkey's AKP vows fight on terror
- Date: 19th May 2016
- Summary: DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** TURKISH TRANSPORT MINISTER, BINALI YILDIRIM, ARRIVING TO OFFER HIS CONDOLENCES FOR VICTIMS OF DIYARBAKIR BLAST SOLDIER ON GUARD OUTSIDE MUNICIPALITY HOUSE WHERE RELATIVES OF VICTIMS RECEIVE CONDOLENCE VISITS YILDIRIM ENTERING THE HOUSE VARIOUS OF YILDIRIM SITTING WITH RELATIVES OF VICTIMS SOLDIERS WALKING IN STREET YILDIRIM PREPARING TO MAKE STATEMENT MAN LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH TRANSPORT MINISTER, BINALI YILDIRIM, SAYING: "We are going to do whatever is necessary. The resources of our government will be at your disposal. To those who attempt to break our territorial unity and trigger fratricide, we will give them as good as they get." SOLDIER ON GUARD YILDIRIM ARRIVING AT CEMETERY / TALKING TO A MOURNING WOMAN GIRLS CRYING AND READING KORAN YILDIRIM AND AK PARTY OFFICIALS PRAYING
- Embargoed: 3rd June 2016 17:09
- Keywords: Turkey blast Kurds victims AK Party Binali Yildirim
- Location: DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY
- City: DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Insurgencies
- Reuters ID: LVA0014IH6IIV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Turkey's likely next prime minister and incoming leader of the ruling AK Party vowed on Thursday (May 19) to continue the fight against the "terrorist menace" threatening the country.
Binali Yildirim, currently the country's transport minister, travelled to the southeast province of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish region, immediately after his nomination as head of the party was announced.
He paid a visit to the site of an explosion which killed 16 people last week, in a region that has seen some of its worst fighting in recent months since the height of the Kurdish insurgency in the 1990s.
Yildirim, 60, has been a close ally of President Tayyip Erdogan for two decades.
He is seen as likely to champion Erdogan's aim of changing the constitution to create a presidential system, a move opponents say will bring growing authoritarianism, and to support the president's determination to crush by force an insurgency by militants in the largely Kurdish southeast.
The AKP is electing a new leader after Ahmet Davutoglu announced earlier this month he was stepping down as head of the party and therefore as prime minister following an increasingly public rift with Erdogan.
AKP sources have said a new cabinet could be announced as early as Monday. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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