Turkey Must Not Equate Kurds With Terrorists - PACE President

President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Anne Brasseur warned on Friday against equating Kurds with terrorists.

STRASBOURG (Sputnik) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has consistently affirmed that he does not equate the Kurdish people with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, amid criticism from international organizations.

"Being Kurd doesn't mean that you are PKK," Brasseur told journalists, expressing hope that the upcoming elections in Turkey would be held in a peaceful and stable environment and "in a decent way."

Tensions in Turkey escalated in July when the country launched a military campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq, after militants claimed responsibility for the murders of several Turkish police officers said to be allied with the Islamic State.

In August, Erdogan called a snap general election for November 1, after parties that had won the majority of seats in the June election failed to form a coalition. The left-wing socialist Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), in alliance with the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), is one of the front-runners in the upcoming election.