'Turkey will not allow any terror corridor near border'

Turkey will not allow any entity or terror corridor that threatens the country’s unity or integrity, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Sunday.

“The formation of any entity that threatens our unity and integrity, the creation of a terror corridor near our borders … or any step in the region contrary to Turkey will never be allowed,” Akar said in a statement marking Turkey’s Republic Day, celebrated every year on October 29 since 1923.

Akar said Turkey resolutely continues its fight against terror groups, particularly FETO – the group behind a defeated coup in 2016 – as well as the terrorist PKK and its Syrian branches the PYD and YPG, and Daesh, adding: “This struggle will not cease until the last terrorist is neutralized.”

“The Republic of Turkey believes in the importance of finding peaceful, permanent, and fair solutions to problems without being indifferent to the suffering of the people, and tensions and conflicts around it,” he said.

The official proclamation of the Turkish Republic by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk took place on October 29, 1923 when the name of the nation and its status as a republic were declared.

A vote then took place in the Grand National Assembly and Ataturk, a revolutionary statesman, was elected first president of the Republic of Turkey by a unanimous vote.